
Class _71ZJ^ 
Book 



/ 



OA 



/- 



Copyright M". 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE MAGIC OF DRESS 








i. r 



''Holding the glas^ to fa.b-hion' 



THE MAGIC OF 
DRESS 



BY 



GRACE MARGARET GOULD 



ILLUSTRATED BY 
E. M, A. STEINMETZ 




Garden City New York 
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

1911 



1 



^ 



AXL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION 
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN 



COPYRIGHT, I91I, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 



^/ ' 



V »■ « 



THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. 



H'Strisof 



©Ci.A297599 



TO MY MOTHER 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 
I. 


Dress as it is Developing 


PAGE 

3 


II. 


The First Impression 


10 


III. 


Things Desirable 


17 


IV. 


Things to be Avoided 


24 


V. 


The Moral Effect of Dress . 


32 


VI. 


Inhumanity in Dress 


39 


VII. 


Extremes in Dress 


45 


VIII. 


Essentials to Smart Dressing . 


51 


IX. 


Economy in Dress 


. 58 


X. 


Colours 


. Q5 


XI. 


Dress Accessories 


74 


XII. 


Special Wardrobes . . . . 


84 


XIII. 


Jewellery 


94 


XIV. 


The Care of Clothes 


. 103 


XV. 


Dress in its Relation to Age 


. Ill 


XVI. 


The Afflicted in Appearance 


. 119 


XVII. 


The Hat and the Coiffure . 


. 132 


XVIII. 


Shopping in Paris 


. 140 


XIX. 


American Shops and American 






Fashions .... 


. 153 


XX. 


The Ideal in Dress . 


. 160 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



"Holding the glass to fashion . . Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

"Trailing skirts and elaborate coats are 

not appropriate for stormy weather" 22 

"The children are packed off to bed" . 40 

"The papers illustrate the new and what 

they term 'fetching' style" ... 48 

"This is the girl you remember" ... 80 

"What a caricature she makes of her- 
self — this woman who is growing 
old" 112 

*'Is there then a secret to hat success?" 136 

"Then she becomes an inspiration and 

dress has done its perfect work" . 164 



u^ 



:.&i»*' 



THE MAGIC OF DRESS 



THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

CHAPTER I 

DRESS AS IT IS DEVELOPING 

MUCH has been said about the folly 
and frivolity of woman's dress. But 
let us think for a moment — per- 
haps her dress is not as silly and frivolous 
as it is said to be. 

Take the prehistoric cave-woman. Her 
clothes consisted of an uncured skin of some 
wild animal. It was raw and unpleasant to 
look at and had, you may be sure, no subtle 
sachet concealed about it. It was far from 
durable, for the rains would stiffen it and the 
heat would cause it to decay. And as for 
the style — well, that didn't count, for 
no other woman was any better off. It 
served the sole purpose of protection, but 
covered her less and became her not so well 
as it had the beast from whom it had been 
torn. 

3 



4 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

So much for the dress of the so-called 
golden age. 

Now take the fashionable woman of to- 
day, on her way to the opera, for instance. 
She is wrapped in sable furs. These priceless 
pelts have been cured, dressed, and matched. 
They will last so long that they may be handed 
down as heirlooms in her family. They have 
been adjusted to her figure. They have been 
adapted to her individual style. Never did 
they fit and suit the little creatures from whom 
they were stripped so perfectly as they fit and 
suit her. 

Let us look at the details of their making. 
They are lined with the richest of satins, silks, 
and chiffons. The prehistoric woman never 
could have dreamed of such dainty textures, 
but gradually through the ages her daughters 
came to require and expect them. And what 
woman has asked for she has generally received. 

Think of the wars that have been waged, 
and the ships that have been built, and the 
journeys that have been made, and the men 
that have toiled and died in order that these 
fabrics might be at woman's command. Such, 
indeed, is the progress of the human race. 

These sable furs, too, are wadded with cot- 
ton. Perhaps the prehistoric woman may have 



DRESS AS IT IS DEVELOPING 5 

plucked a cotton boll for the little urchin 
toddling behind her to play with, but she had 
no more idea of the possibilities of warmth 
and comfort concealed within it than the child 
had. 

Gradually, as woman came to demand a 
fabric at once light, flexible, and warm, cotton 
was cultivated and its fibres were spun into 
cloth. Think of the employment for count- 
less thousands and the wealth for countless 
generations that have come from this manu- 
facture of cotton goods. 

And then there is the thread with which 
the pelts are bound together. Is there any 
single article of manufacture that has been so 
useful to humanity as thread.'^ Why, the 
needle that sprang into use at the same time 
is in a way a symbol of home, and all the 
pretty and sacred associations of home are 
strung like gems upon the thread. 

Then, oftentimes, these furs are elabo- 
rately decorated. They have jewelled buckles 
of great value, they have frills of rare lace 
and loops of silken cords. These do not add 
to the warmth of the garment but they make 
it and the wearer more beautiful. Thus to 
gain beauty has become one of the objects 
of woman's dress. 



6 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

This feminine beauty so adorned is air in- 
spiration. As it has gained in refinement, so 
has the race become more cultivated. The 
savage wooer of the prehistoric woman knocked 
her down with a club and bore her off to his 
lair. The modern wooer approaches his lady 
love as if she were a queen and through her 
favour feels himself become noble. 

What, then, do these two extreme types, 
the prehistoric woman in her skins and the 
modern lady in her furs, teach.? 

They teach that clothes, first and always, 
are made to cover and protect. They teach 
that as the race has progressed, clothes have 
improved. They teach, furthermore, that the 
desire for better clothes has been an inspiration 
to further progress. They teach that dignity 
and deference have come to woman through 
the appeal she has made by dress. She has 
gained modesty and beauty and with them 
self-respect. Of course, all men defer to 
her. 

This development, however, has not been 
like the coming up of a flower in a garden. It 
often has been choked by crude or false ideas. 
It has run to the seeds of folly and immodesty. 
It has been crowded by the weeds of vanity 
and extravagance. No wonder so much has 



DRESS AS IT IS DEVELOPING 7 

been said and written against dress, for women 
themselves have furnished the texts. 

Fashion plates of centuries ago might well 
have been taken in a chamber of horrors. 
Think of Queen Elizabeth in her monstrous 
ruff and iron-bound farthingale. Think of 
the tower-like coiffures of the day of Good 
Queen Anne that were reared of false hair 
and paste — of the inappropriate designs they 
displayed, such as a full-rigged ship, or a 
scene from mythology. 

Think, too, of the uncleanliness they con- 
cealed. It sometimes seems as if for one 
beautiful and appropriate style gained a 
thousand deformities had to be tried and 
rejected. 

Why has this progress in dress been so slow 
and difficult .f^ Principally because women 
have hesitated to think and act for themselves. 
It is the case of the Chinese shoes. What it is 
said should be worn, has been worn. Woman's 
position, too, encouraged this habit of imitation. 
She was at first almost a slave. Her mind 
was a subject mind. It naturally followed. 

Those who dealt in feminine apparel were 
quick to take advantage of this feeling. From 
making what they were ordered to make, they 
came to make what they chose and to order 



8 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

it to be worn. Hence the tyranny of Fashion. 
This Fashion, as its very name signifies, 
was at first nothing more nor less than the proper 
way of making or fashioning apparel, or the 
art of Dress. It came, through the deference 
paid by women to those who plied this art, 
to be a sort of a god. What Fashion said 
was. what had to be done or worn, though 
the heavens fell or the earth gaped with 
dismay. Woman absolutely refused to think 
for herself, and so Fashion thought for her 
and thus ruled. 

In consequence of this lack of thought, 
fashionable dress became and remained a 
mystery to the average woman. Why she 
put on this and took off that was something 
she did not understand further than it was the 
style to do so. 

This state still continues, but with a differ- 
ence. By looking back fifty or a hundred 
years w^e are able to see that the tyranny of 
Fashion is breaking from the weight of its 
own nonsense. To heed it very much is be- 
coming just as impossible for women as it now 
is for them not to have property or minds 
of their own. 

Since the modern woman is able to manage 
her husband, her husband's family, and their 



DRESS AS IT IS DEVELOPING 9 

own family, it seems likely that she may 
manage her own styles of dress. She listens 
just as eagerly as ever, but she picks here 
and there instead of swallomng it whole. 
The mystery is fading away before the light 
of refined taste and common sense. 

By means of these two attributes each 
and every woman should be able to dress her- 
self according to that highest standard — 
her ideal self. 



CHAPTER II 



THE FIRST IMPRESSION 



THE first impression is generally a 
lasting impression. It is the novelty 
that fixes the memory. Think for 
yourself how true this is of inanimate things. 
We remember the beautiful view as we first 
saw it; we remember the rare gem as its 
sparkle first caught our eye; the rose remains 
the rose that we first plucked. 

If this is true — as it is — in nature, in archi- 
tecture and in painting, it is even more true 
in regard to people. 

While everybody has many phases of appear- 
ance and many sides of character, it is the 
phase and the side first presented that remain 
longest in the memory. 

The mind naturally associates ideas; thus 
any grace or defect first noticed is apt to be 
associated with the woman showing it and 
becomes a very part of her individuality. 

Everyone admits that this is true of the 

10 



THE FIRST IMPRESSION 11 

expression of the face. It either invites or it 
repels. It either inspires love, or it causes 
distrust and dislike. The dress, too, has its 
expression, which is even more effective, for 
the expression of the face goes with it; com- 
bined they form the personality. 

Here again comes in the importance of look- 
ing after every detail of dress. The eye has 
a wandering way of its own. Involuntarily 
it seizes upon some trifling peculiarity and the 
memory holds it. Who does not remember 
the woman with the wart on her nose by the 
wart? Who does not at once notice that a 
button is lacking from the otherwise perfect 
shoe.'^ If the dainty gown is finished with a 
soiled or crumpled collar of lace, the im- 
pression that would have been pleasing is lost. 
This is a mild way of putting it, for sometimes 
a positive dislike is incurred. 

The picture must be complete in order 
that the first impression be an agreeable one. 
It sometimes seems that the slighter the detail 
of dress the more prominent it is. Of course, 
the part it plays has something to do with 
this. 

The hand is always intelligent and active. 
It is extended in greeting, it emphasizes con- 
versation. The slightest rip ^in a glove. 



n THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

therefore, is big enough to mar the finest 
costume. In fact, the finer the costume the 
more it will be marred. 

Beyond its pleasing or unpleasing effect, 
the first impression is important, because it 
is taken by many as an index to character. 
Each little detail indicates some personal 
quality. Such expressions as "frowzy-head" 
and "down at the heel" have come to refer 
even more to the character than to the appear- 
ance itself. This is often unfair, for circum- 
stances can be stronger than the best intentions, 
but the unfairness does not change the fact. 

First impressions are very strong in the life 
of the home. Many a breakfast has been 
spoiled by an untidy kimono, while bread 
and butter is often glorified by the daintiness 
of the housewife who serves it. Love at 
first sight is a common phrase. When it is 
a true one you may be sure that the object 
of love has been appropriately and attrac- 
tively dressed. 

Indeed, the first impression of dress at home 
may be said to affect the house and the day. 
Slovenliness is contagious both in body and 
spirit, while neatness is a pervading tonic. 

In an age so commercial as this the first 
impression in dress has also a business impor- 



THE FIRST IMPRESSION 13 

tance. More and more the woman of to-day 
is becoming a business woman of to-day. 
Often her appearance is her chief recommen- 
dation. The young woman who appears neat 
and trim gives an impression of being apt and 
clever. She who is slovenly in dress will be 
careless in business; at least, the average man 
thinks so. 

Successful women, then, bear in them- 
selves the marks and proofs of their success. 
The young business woman should always 
be neatly, trimly, and plainly gowned. Every 
detail from the coil of her hair to the tip of 
her shoe should be appropriately perfect. 
There should be no fluffiness, no gay colours, 
no artful attempt to display the person. 
The business man who deserves any part of 
that name employs a clerk, and nothing else. 

Charles Dickens, in his "American Notes," 
praised the fine, neat, and intelligent appear- 
ance of the American girl at work in the mills 
of Lowell. What would he say now could 
he see the typical oflSce girl, on her way to 
her work, in the New York subway? 

One of the troubles is that a little learning 
is a dangerous thing in fashion. So many 
wrong and absurd ideas are put forward by 
those pretending authority in style that it 



14 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

is no wonder that young and foolish girls, 
anxious to please yet ignorant of how they 
should do so, are misled. Their spirit is 
right. They feel it is their duty to be well 
dressed, but with them "fashionably" passes 
for "well." 

To be well dressed one must always be 
appropriately dressed. If a fashion aids one 
in being appropriately dressed, then that 
fashion should be followed, but it should not 
if it does not. 

A man does not go down to business in 
evening dress. 

xAfter all, the business life is still ex- 
perimental for women. When the time 
comes, if it must, that she is an essential 
factor in business life, there will be an evo- 
lution in taste in the business dress just 
as there has been, to an extent at least, 
in the dress for the home and society. 

Woman is rather slow to adapt herself to new 
conditions. It was natural, though deplorable, 
that in seeking for what would look best in 
a business life she should choose only \ hat 
might look best outside of a business life. 

Let the business girl try to put herself in her 
employer's place and think what sort of an 
appearing young woman he would wish work- 



THE FIRST IMPRESSION 15 

ing for him. Then let her try to give this 
impression in dress. 

Let there be no mistake, the correctly 
dressed business woman does exist. She may be 
found in every city, and wherever she is seen 
she gives that impression of efficiency that 
her success warrants. 

She wears dark colours. Her tailored suit 
has plain but proper lines. Her hat is small 
and her veil inconspicuous. She wears man- 
nish gloves and sensible shoes, both in perfect 
condition. You never think twice about her 
coiffure, it is so simple and right for herself. 
There is nothing of the dowdy about her, for 
whatever she wears she wears with distinc- 
tion. The first impression is one of self- 
respect, and she deserves it. 

The first impression is a good criterion of 
style. It is foolish to persist in wearing any- 
thing that causes wonder or ridicule. Style 
should never offend the sense of fitness. While 
it is the duty of every woman to dress becom- 
ingly, and while doing so to follow the trend 
of fashion, she should avoid the freaks and fads 
of the passing day. 

These are no more real pictures than are 
the caricatures of the papers or the comic 
valentines of the store windows. There is 



16 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

an ideal of dress ever present, whatever the 
dictates of dressmakers may be. 

The woman who would give the best impres- 
sion of herself at her best should always seek 
to follow this ideal. 



CHAPTER III 



THINGS DESIRABLE 



AND there are very many desirable things 
in smart dressing, some of which are 
sHghted as unimportant. But in a 
general way it may be said that there are no 
slight matters pertaining to dress. Dress 
is the result of care and thought in every parti- 
cular. It requires the finishing touch of an 
artist. 

There is nothing much smaller or slighter 
than a pin, nor is there a more necessary article 
for correct dress. It is very desirable for a wom- 
an to have on hand all sizes and kinds of pins 
and to be able instinctively to put her hand 
on any kind or size of them. One is apt to 
dress carelessly when one is flurried in dressing. 
The pin may be taken as a general symbol of 
the many little but important articles that 
should always be present on the dressing table. 

The pin is a faithful servant that does the best 
work out of sight. A pin seen is generally a pin 

17 



18 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

misplaced. It should never encourage neglect 
any more than a faithful servant does. A 
stitch in time will save nine, but nine pins 
will not save one necessary stitch. There 
is no more deplorable sight than a pinned-up 
woman. It is the use, and not the abuse, of 
the pin that is one of the things desirable. 

A woman must first see well in order to 
look well. Even if she has a maid to see for 
her, the maid's eyes are not her eyes. A 
mirror, then, is a thing most desirable, and if it 
is a three-sided mirror, it is at least that many 
times the more desirable. Some women dress 
as if the front view were the only view. It 
follows, too, that there should be plenty of 
light, and the lights arranged so that they do 
not cause confusing shadows. It is well to 
know the worst. 

Genius has been defined as infinite patience, 
and the saying is certainly true of genius in 
dress. Hence time is one of the things desir- 
able. A hurried costume can never be a com- 
pleted costume, and when the costume is hur- 
ried the wearer is worried. 

It is always desirable to adapt the clothes 
to the woman and the woman to the clothes, 
for together they produce the effect. It is 
desirable to have clothes, but even more de- 



THINGS DESIRABLE 19 

sirable to look as though you had them. Bor- 
rowed ideas should be as impossible as borrowed 
clothes, and, of course, no one will defend 
the wearing of garments not one's own ex- 
cept through absolute necessity. Very often, 
though, a woman looks as if she were wearing 
borrowed clothes, when in reality she is wear- 
ing her own. But she owns them, while they 
do not own her. They represent borrowed 
ideas and not her own ideas. 

The great study of woman is woman, and 
first and foremost every woman should study 
herself. When a woman comes to think of 
her clothes as a part of herself, then they will 
partake of her individuality, and charm with 
her charm. 

Centuries ago, each class was restricted to 
its own costume by law. The merchant and 
his good wife wore what was suitable for their 
condition, and the law said that it was not 
suitable for them to wear what the lord and the 
lady were wearing. What the law did then, 
correct taste should do now. 

It is always desirable to fit the scene. If a 
woman is preparing her own breakfast, she 
should be dressed as a housewife, and there can 
be no more dainty and charming figure than 
a housewife correctly dressed. 



20 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

One is effectively dressed who is dressed just 
as she should be under the circumstances. 

Comfort is a desirable thing in dress, but 
it should be stylish comfort. Reform dressing 
is very apt to be deformed dressing, and while 
the one who is dressed in accordance with it 
may be comfortable, those who have to see 
her are most uncomfortable. 

Correct dressing blesses those who wear and 
those who see. 

There are many ways in which this fashion- 
able comfort may be secured. A skilful 
dressmaker is most desirable. She under- 
stands the art of correct fitting, and that 
saves a multitude of discomforts. Ready- 
made clothes are only a near-fit at best. 
They all should be refitted to suit the in- 
dividual who buys them. When ready-made 
clothes have thus been refitted, it is a desirable 
thing to add some detail, such as different 
buttons, or new facing for revers, or a dis- 
tinctive collar. These will remove the sim- 
ilarity which is such a detriment to ready-made 
clothes. 

Ready-made clothes, in a slight sense, are raw 
material. The woman herself by her own taste 
should convert them into an individual costume. 

Light weight fabrics, of course, induce com- 



THINGS DESIRABLE 21 

fort, but very often heavy clothing can be 
comfortably worn because the weight has been 
adjusted and distributed by a skilful dress- 
maker. There is such a thing, too, as a sense 
of comfort, which comes from the conscious- 
ness of correct dress. This may seem ps}^- 
chological, but it is very real. 

The clergyman who praises a tranquil spirit 
in preference to the pomps and vanities of the 
world is often unconsciously giving his fair 
parishioners a hint for effective dress. 

It is desirable not to overwork one's clothes. 
They look best for what they were made. 
Besides, the most inanimate of things, such as 
tools, for instance, or machinery, improve 
through rest. This is especially true of clothes, 
which seem to have a soul or a personality of 
their own. 

Light materials, trailing skirts and elaborate 
coats are not appropriate for stormy weather. It 
is desirable to have a rainy day outfit and the 
woman who wears it rises superior to the storm. 
But it is an affectation to wear a distinctive cos- 
tume when the purpose for which it is designed 
does not exist, like wearing a yachting costume 
in summer, for instance, and not going near the 
water. One's pride may be satisfied by wear- 
ing automobile clothes when one must either 



22 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

walk or ride in the street car, but one's common 
sense will suffer. 

It is desirable to have a family chest filled 
with the good things of other days. An aris- 
tocratic air will often come from a scarf of 
antique design, or a shawl which is no longer 
on the market. Think of the fringed and em- 
broidered crepe scarfs and the Paisley and 
camel's-hair shawls. And then the antique 
jewellery which is so much more valuable now 
than in the day when it was bought. An old- 
time pendant may be the one touch that makes 
a commonplace costume a notable one. Old 
lace, too, gives distinction, taking the wearer 
back to the stately days of long ago. Again 
this may seem psychological, but, like the lace, 
it is very real. 

All this talk of various clothes, modern and 
ancient, implies much money. But if good 
taste is a family characteristic, the amount is 
not so great as it would seem. Money is 
indeed a desirable thing in dress, but many a 
woman has been crushed under the weight of it. 
The money sense is seldom the artistic sense. 

Very often the shop girl is better dressed than 
the wealthy woman upon whom she waits. 
She knows how to wear her clothes and the 
other does not. It is this innate sense of the 



Z' * 





'Trailing sJdrtfi and elaborate coats are not appropnaie 

for storm y u^eather'' 



THINGS DESIRABLE 23 

proper wearing of clothes that is one of the 
most desirable things in dress. 

How does it come? How then, do self-respect 
and composure and dignity come? 

They are outer signs of inner graces. 



CHAPTER IV 

THINGS TO BE AVOIDED 

A TRUE woman is always womanly. 
She is proud of her sex and of the 
^ beauty and charm that belong to it. 
Her dress should always be an additional part 
of her beauty and charm and should in no way 
change them. 

How often, though, is the fashionable ideal 
different from the womanly ideal! Of course, 
it is not necessary to talk about the big waist 
of the Venus de IMilo. She was essentially 
an out-of-door woman. It is natural for the 
modern woman to have a small waist, and 
therefore it is all the more unnatural for her 
to pinch it into a wasp-like one. It is a safe 
rule always to avoid pinching in dress every- 
where and at all times. 

The ideal contour of the woman of the day 
should be kept by her dress. There are no more 
beautiful lines to a woman's figure than those 
which join the bust to the waist and the waist 

24 



THINGS TO BE AVOIDED 25 

to the hips. If these are harmoniously pro- 
portioned the form is a beautiful form, whether 
it be big or little. The woman of taste is 
continually thinking of those things to wear 
that will give her this harmonious contour. 
She is not adopting freakish devices of fashion 
that will really make her less beautiful. 
There are no patent medicines for true 
style. 

This is not preaching the doctrine of common 
sense, but of becoming dress, stylish dress, ef- 
fective dress. Of course, one of the chief aims 
of a woman's dress is charm. A shapeless 
waist and a back as if hewn out of wood are 
also things devoutly to be avoided. 

Whenever fashions are treated as hard and 
fast rules the form is apt to be distorted. 
There is always need of the personal quality. 

Women cannot be dressed by Fashion as if 
Fashion were in charge of an institution and 
they were the inmates. Fashion is a good 
friend, not a hard taskmistress. She should 
suggest, but not compel. 

AVhat are the visible results of a slavish fol- 
lowing of Fashion, or of what some one says is 
Fashion? 

Women cripple themselves with high heels 
that are entirely too high. No one objects to 



26 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

a high heel. It is the too high heel that is the 
abomination. 

A corset is a good thing. Indeed it is a 
necessary thing. Oftentimes, however, women 
put themselves into a vise. This word might 
be spelled the other way. As a result, the 
beautiful curves of the figure are flattened or 
bulged or sent off in some unnatural direction. 
Each woman should wear a corset suited to her 
own particular figure and not a long one, or a 
short one, or a tight one, or a loose one, simply 
because some one who knows nothing about 
her requirements or needs says so. 

The collar is an important detail in effective 
dressing. Sometimes it is the one touch that 
gives life and light to a sombre gown. But 
the woman with the long, swan-like neck should 
not wear the collar of the woman who hasn't 
any throat to speak of and this rule is just as 
strong exactly the other way. It certainly 
is neither beautiful nor natural for a woman 
to carry her head so that she seems to be 
reaching to bite something. 

Some collars are so stiffly and heavily 
boned and so very high that a woman has to 
turn her body in order to turn her head. The 
skin of the throat is so delicate in women that 
often an indelible mark is made through wearing 



THINGS TO BE AVOIDED «7 

improper collars. Perhaps this ought to be a 
good thing for the elderly woman who desires 
to look young, because it will prevent her 
from wearing the telltale low cut neck which, 
very properly, is fashionable for those who can 
wear it, but frightful for those who cannot. 

Speaking again of the Venus de Milo, noth- 
ing is more beautiful than the shape and curves 
of her head and hair. This effect in the modern 
woman would be just as beautiful if produced 
by artificial hair. It is not what is worn, but 
the way it is worn, that counts. Artificial hair 
is a thing to be avoided when it distorts the 
head, and there are Hottentot women in Africa 
whose coiffure is less preposterous than that 
worn by those who ape but do not appreciate 
the coiffure fashions of the day. 

Suggestive fashions should be avoided. 
Oftentimes it is the wearer and not the fashion 
that makes the suggestiveness. There is gen- 
erally a good reason back of every fashion, but 
unfortunately it doesn't always go with it. 
Instances are as disagreeable to mention as 
they are to see. But still, as horrible examples, 
these few may be mentioned out of many: 

There is the skirt moulded to the figure, and 
therefore failing to perform one of the prime 
purposes of the skirt. 



28 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

There is the lining which has the effect of 
flesh and is much more suggestive than the 
real flesh would be, because it is often worn 
out of doors and under circumstances where 
the wearer would not dare to go so thinly 
clad. What purpose does it serve then except 
suggestiveness? 

Some women are very like ostriches. They 
think that what they cannot see themselves, no 
one else can see. This may be the reason why 
they dare have their waists cut even lower in 
the back than the front. 

A word here for the neglected placket. 
Why, oh why, will women strut along compla- 
cently with their underwear exposed .^^ 

These are but a few horrible examples. 
Every woman can think of many more, and they 
all should be avoided. This is in no sense a 
sermon. Every woman can preach that for 
herself. 

The point is, that immodesty in dress is 
unbecoming. A woman who knows she is 
immodestly dressed is under a strain. She has 
a difficult part to carry off. There is a bold- 
ness that comes from daring to violate con- 
ventions which leaves its trace not only on 
the face but the character itself. 

Two minor evils which may lead to this 



THINGS TO BE AVOIDED 29 

greater one — immodesty in dress — are over- 
dressing and conspicuousness in dress. In 
immodesty in dress women put too little on; 
in these two instances they put too much on. 
Squaws do, too, by the way. It is a sign of 
barbaric taste. 

Think of the little frail woman whom every 
one knows and laughs at. She is like a grab 
bag turned inside out or an animated Christ- 
mas tree. She doesn't wear things — she 
displays them. 

A well-dressed woman should make herself a 
pleasant detail, but not the principal detail of the 
scene. When she puts herself forward she puts 
charm backward. A woman is to be sought, not 
to seek. It is the reserve power of knowing that 
she is sought that makes woman so captivating. 
A queen never has to advance from her throne 
in order to have her hand kissed. 

Conspicuous dressing is a bid for favour which 
should be given without the bid. What then 
is conspicuous dressing.^ It is something that 
is inharmonious and out of place, perhaps 
nothing more than a glaring colour or the poise 
of a hat. It calls attention instead of attracting 
attention. A well-dressed woman does not 
require an advance-agent for advertisement. 

Fashionable dress should be feminine dress. 



30 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

When a hen crows, the wonder is not that she 
crows so poorly, but that she crows at all. 

As a general rule, anything a man wears a 
woman should disdain to wear. Of course, 
there are exceptions, for men must know a few 
things, and they do know the things that are 
practical for business wear. If a woman must go 
to business, she will probably do well to wear 
mannish gloves, shoes, neckwear, and a tailored 
suit made only as a man's tailor and not as a 
dressmaker can make it. But at home let 
the hen not try to crow at all. 

True style implies quality. It is better to 
have a very small painting than a very large 
chromo. It is better to have a well-made, 
correct-in-style costume than a dozen sham 
costumes. It is hard to carry off an imposition. 
But is there ever any doubt about the style of 
the correctly gowned woman? 

Cost has really very little to do with it. The 
woman with taste may buy an attractive 
costume with a little money, and a woman 
without taste very often fails to buy an 
attractive costume with a great deal of money. 
When this woman without taste has only a 
little money, she satisfies herself, but no one 
else, with a cheap and gaudy imitation and it is 
a little money absolutely thrown away. What- 



THINGS TO BE AVOIDED 31 

ever the flashy woman has looks better to her- 
self than it does to any one else. She should 
therefore avoid trying to deceive others with 
cheap imitations when in her heart she knows 
she hasn't deceived herself. 

These are a very few of the very many things 
that women should trv to avoid in dress, the 
more so because they are all avoidable. 

There are so many more things that can't be 
avoided, but must be endured as the penalty 
of correct dress, like the weight and drag of 
costumes, for instance, that these things that 
cannot beautify, but always mar, should be 
shunned. 



CHAPTER V 

THE MORAL EFFECT OF DRESS 

EVERY one admits at once the in- 
fluence of environment on character 
— well, dress is one's closest and 
most intimate environment, isn't it ? 

Now, don't you remember yourself — let 
us hope a long time ago — when you had a 
feeling that the back street and the shady 
side of it were the places for you? And wasn't 
it because your tailored suit was a last season's 
suit, or your hat was a back number? Of 
course it was. 

If you had been dressed up to the moment 
in style it would have been the avenue, and 
the popular side of it, for you. There is dis- 
couragement in old duds just as there is con- 
fidence in a new and modish costume. The 
new gown makes you instinctively put your 
best foot forward, and the dainty shoe upon 
it is not run down at the heel. 

What else do the right clothes when cor- 

32 



THE MORAL EFFECT OF DRESS 83 

rectly worn do? They cause a woman to have 
self respect, and this is the first step toward 
getting the respect of others. At least the 
effects of untidiness are avoided and it is not 
necessary to moralize on them. 

It is practice not preaching that we are con- 
sidering. Oh, but, it may be said, the fash- 
ionably dressed woman is nothing but a doll 
or a butterfly ! Even if this be true, the doll 
is a source of harmless pleasure, while the 
butterfly is a symbol of the soul. 

If the woman be frivolous, where does the 
fault lie — in the woman or in her dress .^^ 
Might she not be less innocently idle were it 
not that she is spending her time making her- 
self attractive.'^ 

Good style in dress is not something to 
be acquired once for all. It conies gradually 
and requires constant attention or lo! before 
you know it, it is gone — that is to say, it 
is educational. 

Of course, selfishness is a peculiar danger 
of devotion to dress. Oftentimes the more 
a woman looks well the more she wants to 
look at herself. Thus, she loses her interest 
in others, which is such a large part of a true 
woman's life. She not only becomes absorbed 
in herself but also in her clothes. To ^o to 



84 THE ^L\GIC OF DRESS 

the dressmaker's for endless fittings and to 
pose before a long mirror at the milliner's 
are the two things she likes best to do. Then 
comes the last stage. She talks of dress, the 
whole dress, and nothing but dress, until the 
only living person not bored is herself. 

What is the mental state of a person too 
self-satisfied to realize that she is a bore? 
She is narrow and flighty and selfish. 

Here dress has done its worst work. How 
is it when it has done its best work? 

The woman of whom we oftenest think and 
longingly dream is the home woman. She 
is a queen and the home is her realm. She 
makes herself attractive and then she makes 
her surroundings attractive, going naturally 
from her own dress to these, her larger dress. 
It is a casket within a casket, and she is the 
jewel. 

On the other hand, what kind of a home 
has the slattern? No kind at all. The poor 
creature — she only boards with herself. 

There is nothing better in life than the 
habit of having habits — that is, good habits, 
of course. From one good habit may come 
many good habits like pretty little chickens, 
one after another, from the same nest. 

Thus, from personal order comes general 



THE MORAL EFFECT OF DRESS 35 

order. The woman with the beautiful clothes 
and the more beautiful house comes to have a 
most beautiful nature. An expert palmist 
should be able to read a lady's character from 
seeing her gloved hand. 

Attractive women in a refined and elevat- 
ing society have attributes in common which 
hold them together like links in a chain. In 
this chain cleanliness is next to godliness, 
and then comes good style in dress. 

Why, even an age may be judged by the 
dress of its women. The glory that was Greece 
and the grandeur that was Rome were re- 
flected in the grace and dignity of woman's 
apparel. 

One can read the rigid ideas of the Common- 
wealth in the prim Quaker-like garb of the 
Puritan maiden, and the corruption of the 
Restoration in the gay costumes of the court 
of Charles the Second. It is woman that 
sets the stride; sometimes it is the walk, by 
which a goddess is revealed; sometimes it 
is the pace that kills. 

What story does the dress of the day tell 
of our age.? There are lights and shades, but 
the light keeps growing brighter and the shades 
are left behind. The Grecian bend would be 
impossible to-day. 



36 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

Now and again the manufacturers have 
tried to make the modern woman step into the 
hoop skirt, but every time she daintily steps 
around it. A woman will still make a guy 
of herself as in the sheath skirt, the hobble 
skirt, and the lamp shade hat, but she will 
not make a monstrosity of herself. She will 
still be unmoral in dress, but she will not be 
immoral in dress. 

There are absurdities enough, heaven knows, 
whereby true modesty is violated, such as 
the skin-tight skirt and the decollete, sleeve- 
less bodice, but the semblance of covering 
worn during the Directoire period in France 
will never be revived for American women. 

The costumes of to-day may be suggestive, 
but they are not frankly sensual. 

But the evening costume is really not the 
characteristic costume. In general, the every- 
day clothes of our women speak well for the 
moral sense of those wearing them. 

Women are more considerate now of their 
health in their dress. The prints of fifty 
years ago showed the American woman trip- 
ping through a snowstorm in low-cut slippers, 
for instance. Our great-grandmothers were 
hothouse plants in a way, because they would 
not dress for the open air. 



THE MORAL EFFECT OF DRESS 37 

Women know more, too, now of hygiene, 
and once in a while, at least, they heed what 
they know in their dress. It is a slow process, 
but still there is progress toward a charming 
dress that at the same time is a sensible dress. 

The very frivolity often condemned in 
dress has a good effect upon the majority of 
women, who might otherwise adopt it if it 
were not that the living picture scared and 
shamed them. 

One moral tendency of modern dress is 
that women no longer slavishly accept every 
style. They do, sometimes, think for them- 
selves in dress. Then comes a sense of re- 
sponsibility, since they no longer have the 
excuse of "Oh! it is the fashion." They do 
not choose to do daring things when they no 
longer feel themselves forced to do them. 
Gradually, very gradually, individuality is 
teaching each woman the better way, which 
is the becoming way. 

Have you thought of the moral influence 
exerted collectively by very many well dressed 
and refined women.? That is to say, by the 
best society as it should be? From such an 
atmosphere of fitness there must come a 
sense of duty to each one to do his or her best, 
which the French call noblesse oblige. 



38 THE IVIAGIC OF DRESS 

It is through seeking higher things that man- 
kind secures higher things. Of course, at the 
most, dress is only one factor in this human 
progress. But it is a real one, because it is 
so very real and dear to every true woman. 
Oftentimes our weaknesses may be stepping- 
stones toward perfection. 



CHAPTER VI 



INHUMANITY IN DRESS 



THE conventional angel as shown in 
painting and sculpture is always 
simply clad. Perhaps the lesson of 
this simplicity in dress is that were the angels 
concerned about an elaborate toilette they 
would no longer be angelic. 

The least trying part of a new dress is the 
trying on of it. That is bad enough, but the 
nerves and the temper are at the same time 
tried to the straining point. Why is this so.'* 

It is very often because the woman is doubt- 
ful of herself, her taste, her dressmaker, and 
the fashion itself. WTien women come to 
know just what they want and how they are 
to get it, there will be little of this fretfulness 
in dress. 

As it is, the average husband, when he 
hears that a new hat or a new dress is coming 
home, is very apt to think that he will go 
around to the club for a little while. 

39 



40 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

But there are members of the houseliold 
who cannot go around to the club, even if 
the husband is so fortunate as to manage to 
escape. There are the children and there 
are the servants in general, and the dressing 
maid in particular. They have to stand the 
excitement. 

The cliildren are packed off to bed or else 
they have to sit in corners and keep still, 
while the debate in the kitchen grows hot as 
to whether it isn't awfully extravagant and 
whether she will like it, anyway. 

Meanwhile, the chief victim of the sacrifice, 
the dressing maid, is pulling and twisting, 
and taking off and putting on again, and 
standing this way and that way, and then 
doing it all over again. At length comes the 
fatal ending, a good, hard cry. 

But it isn't the poor, tired little maid who 
has this good, hard cry, for she has none of 
the luxuries of life. They and it belong to her 
mistress. But she is ha^4ng a cry of her own 
in her attic room — the bitter tears that come 
from hurt feelings and twisted nerves and 
hopelessness of any of the pleasant things of 
hfe. 

Has it been worth while — all the tumult 
in the household for a hat or a di'ess wliich. 




"77/r chUilrcn (ire parked ojf to hrd' 



INHUJVIANITY IN DRESS 41 

if the purchaser had stopped for a moment 
of sober thought, she never would have bought. 

But this tragic crisis is by no means the 
whole fretful story. There have been endless 
discussions, before the article was ever chosen 
as a last desperate resort, that spoiled the 
pleasant gathering at meals and made the 
evening lamp too heated for endurance. 
Indeed, the trying-on season is a trying season. 

If the home is so disastrously affected by 
the dress perplexities and woes of one woman, 
what is the effect of the combined dress per- 
plexities and woes of womankind upon manu- 
facture and trade? 

In the hurry to satisfy woman's scramble 
for the newest and latest thing, the seasons 
have fairly been pushed out of place. Spring 
styles are offered when the snow is flying at 
Christmas-tide, while all the changes in winter 
costumes are settled in mid-summer. 

This would be well enough if these out-of- 
season styles stayed long enough to make it 
worth while, but there is hardly time for the 
catching of breath before factories and work- 
shops are booming and teeming over the 
inevitable and never-present novelty which 
is always coming but never stays long enough 
to be seen. 



42 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

It is reasonable to suppose, without going 
into the statistics of labour, that if the masters 
are hurried and worried, the toilers are far 
worse off. Only too often the silly and useless 
extravagances of dress represent long hours, 
scant pay, crowded work shops, the lack of 
everything sanitary, and hence suffering and 
sin. 

If this is so of articles that have some worth 
of their own, how is it with the cheap imita- 
tions that simply resemble in a slight degree 
the genuine article and that are sold to gratify 
the vanity of those who should not expect or 
try to have such things? Cheap wares imply 
cheap labour, and God only knows what cheap 
labour implies. 

It is the sins that have been committed in 
the name of novelty that make the very sound 
of this word so odious. 

What possible reason was there for makings 
a wrap out of the skins of little lambs, still 
unborn, except that such a wrap would be 
a most unusual one? So, too, it may be noted,- 
would be a wrap made of the skins of savages. 
It is not impossible to imagine some heartless 
beauty saying: "What of it? What else 
were they made for?" 

But that is not the voice of woman, true 



INHUMANITY IN DRESS 4S 

woman, who is man's comforter, who loves 
little children and cares for every living thing, 
be it great or small. 

This true woman is fond of birds. What 
does she think, then, of the slaughter of the 
countless thousands of these little friends that 
are so glad to serve and cheer .^^ 

What does she think of depriving the heron 
of its chief glory and the cruel and bloody way 
in which this is done? And then there is the 
poor ostrich, which, however ungainly, has 
feelings of its own. 

What does my lady of the sealskin wrap say 
of the slaughter of the female seals, slaugh- 
tered often when carrying their young .^^ 

What do the mothers think of all these cruel- 
ties toward dumb creatures of their own sex, 
that are also mothers? Does any one at this 
particular point feel called upon to write a 
poem on maternity? 

The answer is that women do not think. 
In the joys of possession, they refuse to con- 
sider how the coveted article was got. They have 
it and some one else hasn't, and that is the one 
thing needful in heartlessly fashionable dress. 

This hurry, worry and rush of manufacture 
and trade is fittingly reflected in shopping. 

In "shopping" — in quotation marks, of 



44 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

course — it is this always quoted shopping 
that has a peculiar sense of its own, and that 
is the only sense about it. It is the rush to 
buy new things which, of course, is meant. 
This rush has many of the characteristics of 
a mob. It is thoughtless. It is set upon one 
mad purpose and to achieve its purpose it is 
inconsiderate and often cruel. 

Does this sound too extreme? How many 
women, on an opening day, spare the shop girl 
or even think of sparing her? They ask her 
to show many, many things which they 
haven't the slightest idea of buying. They 
expect her to answer all kinds of irrelevant 
questions. They force her to lift down with- 
out a care that she must put back, and all this 
idle while they keep her standing. 

Why should employers provide stools for 
their girl clerks when their customers will 
prevent them from ever using them? These, 
poor girls, too, will have to stand up in the 
cars on the way home, because it has suited 
many women to *'shop" — again the quo- 
tation marks — just before the rush hours. 

It is sad to think how truly Johnson's lines 
may be paraphrased into: 

"Woman's inhumanitv for woman, 
Makes couiitiess thousands mourn,'* 



CHAPTER VII 

EXTREMES IN DRESS 

IT IS a safe rule in dress to avoid extremes. 
Folly flies while common sense sits down 
and considers. Often, if a woman will 
take time to think twice regarding some freak- 
ish article of dress, it will be withdrawn from 
the market before she can make up her mind 
about it. 

The scrap heaps of fashion if joined together 
would make the mightiest mountain chain on 
earth. But Folly in her latest aeroplane could 
easily fly over it. 

Too often new styles are merely a matter 
of business. They are the result of the avarice 
of trades people and not of the wishes of cus- 
tomers. Ingenuity is used in making some 
new and strange thing. Then it is stamped as 
the latest mode, though nobody on earth knows 
who does the stamping. 

Yet, the average woman feels it her duty not 
only to hurry up and buy it, but pay the highest 

45 



45 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

possible price for it. This highest price is, of 
course, the first price, for novelty alone gives 
value. 

Does any woman doubt it.^^ 

Let her price the freakish costume she bought 
at first sight three months afterward. If it 
can be found tucked away out of sight, it will 
be marked down a third or a half. This very 
detestable phrase "marked down" shows in 
itself the worthlessness of much of the stuff 
that is made just to sell. 

Do we ever hear of "marked down" sales 
of ermine, for instance .^^ 

Competition helps avarice in this mad race 
for novelty. The moment the other shops have 
the new thing which one shop has brought out, 
it is no longer the new thing for the one shop. 
Thus, no sooner is a novelty chased in than it is 
chased out again. 

Another result of this craze for something 
that is new and is good only while it is new is 
the inferiority of the materials used. This is 
due to the hurry in which things are made and 
the great quantity of them that is forced on the 
market. Quality does not count when one 
simply looks and grabs. 

What a contrast exists between the wardrobe 
of the average young woman of to-day and that 



EXTREMES IN DRESS 47 

which her mother had forty or fifty years 
ago. 

Indeed, it is foolish to speak of the present- 
day wardrobe because in most cases it doesn't 
exist. Yet, dignifying the quick transition 
from the shop to the rag bag by such a name as 
wardrobe, what are the treasures we find in it? 

Do we find any real lace, any bolts of silk, 
or pieces of silk backed velvets, any India or 
Paisley or Cashmere shawls.^ Do we find 
any genuine jewellery? 

If only standard goods were sold and worn, 
half of the department stores would have to 
close their doors. 

Imitation is also accountable for many of 
the extremes in dress. Women, like birds of a 
feather, flock together and are only too apt to 
peck at and drive out the uncommon bird. 
And yet, sometimes it happens that they all 
come to ape and copy this same uncommon bird. 

It is the approval of Style that makes all 
the difference. 

Not long since, the poke bonnet, which had 
been ridiculed on the stage for a hundred years, 
came again into vogue. 

The country girl has always been a stock 
subject for ridicule on the stage. 

Let us imagine her appearing a few years ago 



48 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

dressed according to the extremes of fashion of 
to-day. She wears a hat, an inverted flower- 
pot, that almost covers her eyes and rests on 
her shoulders at the back. She wears a skirt 
scant and tight and tied in so that graceful 
walking is out of the question, and any walking 
at all is a difficult matter. How loud and long 
and deep would have been the laughter. 

Suppose again, she had strolled up Fifth 
Avenue in such an attire, on a pleasant 
afternoon not more than two years ago, 
would she not have been unanimously voted 
a guy.? 

Surely, there must be something else besides 
custom that makes style desirable. Is it not 
possible that it may be good taste .^^ 

Years ago, especially in foreign countries, 
many absurd fashions came into vogue through 
imitation of royalty. Because a royal per- 
sonage had a noticable defect, it was quite the 
thing for every fashionable person so to dress 
as to seem to have it also. It was the old 
story of the fox without a tail. 

This same story often has a force even at the 
present day here. 

While all men are equal in this country, all 
women will agree that all women are not. 
Some particular woman sets a pace in the lime- 




''The papers illiistrafe the nen and irhaf they term 

\fetehiu(f style^^ 



EXTREMES IN DRESS 49 

light, and all her sisters hurry out of the shadow 
to follow her. 

Let a fashionable society leader appear in 
an exclusive New York restaurant for instance, 
in a frock which has some new and eccentric 
feature to it, such as balloon sleeves, when 
small, tight sleeves are being worn. 

Every other woman present gasps and whis- 
pers to her neighbor, "What a fright she looks. 
I wouldn't wear such sleeves, would yoxi? " 

It isn't necessary to say what the answer is. 

But on the next night, you may be sure big 
sleeves will be worn by these same gasping 
women. Then the papers illustrate the new 
and what they term '* fetching" style, and every 
poor little shop girl in the land scrimps and 
starves the more until she has them. 

Now, it is very possible that these big sleeves 
were a fetching style for the enterprising woman 
who wore them at the restaurant. She may 
have been tall and sylph-like and may have 
required just the breadth that they gave. 

But how about the short woman, and the 
dumpy woman, and the inevitable fat woman, 
who always will try everything but the right 
thing? When each woman learns to dress 
for herself, imitation will be one of the arts 
that are well lost. 



50 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

A lesson often may be taught by horrible ex- 
amples. 

Let us enumerate a few that speak for their 
own absurd selves. In the last half century 
women have worn and have been glad to wear 
the hoop skirt, the tilting bustle, the water-fall 
chignon, the pulled-back skirt, the shoe with 
the extreme French heel, the pancake hat and 
the hat with the tower-like crown, the high 
stiff ruff, the sheath skirt, and the hobble 
skirt. Suppose any one of them was now 
condemned to wear all of these styles except 
the latest ones. AYould she not think it a cruel 
and unusual punishment.'* 

A woman should always dress as if for a 
portrait of which she will not be ashamed for 
the rest of her life, and which her children will 
cherish and point to with pride. 

Extremes of fashion can never give this 
lastins: charm. Let each woman choose for 
herself the middle course. It is safest and 
surest. 



CHAPTER \^n 

ESSENTIALS TO SMART DRESSING 

SOMETIjNIES the woman who is well 
dressed doesn't know it. But generally 
she does. That is to say, smart dressing 
is more a matter of care than of good luck. 

Of course, there is the very fortunate woman 
who naturally looks well under all possible 
circumstances, even as the angels do. But 
to the average woman, smart dressing is a 
matter of thought and preparation. 

Perhaps the essentials of smart dressing can 
be most quickly learned from actual examples. 
Every one knows women who are models of 
fit appearance. Now what are the qualities 
that make them so.^ 

Immaculateness first and foremost. There 
can be no more grades to this in a woman than 
there can be in a lily. She is either spotless 
or spotted. Here, too, comes in a mental pleas- 
ure to which reference w^ill often be made. The 
woman who is spotless in person and attire 

61 



52 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

feels so. And this gives her both confidence and 
dignity of manner. 

Close to this care of the person is the carriage, 
which, of course, should be correct and easy, 
with a touch of stateliness, and even haughti- 
ness if the stiffness can be taken from one and 
affability added to the other. The gusher is 
never a model of either correct dress or manners. 
How can she be when she is never still enough 
even to be posed. There is a certain repose 
that should be cultivated. One who doesn't do 
what the gusher continually does has gone far 
toward acquiring it. 

The average woman is generally a little 
behind time or very tired. Thus, she either 
waddles and rushes or she lolls. Neither of 
these states is beneficial to her dress. 

Her dress, too, unless she has acquired the 
art of dressing, is a hindrance. It is said 
that Italian women who carry gi'eat weights 
on their heads gain thereby a beautiful and 
graceful walk. But a water jar or a heavy 
bundle is a far different thing from the ponder- 
ous weight of each season's millinery creation. 
Think of the extreme and ferocious size of the 
hat pin, and yet it is utterly inadeouate to 
hold the average big hat in place. 

Then the fashionable coiffure is an infirm 



ESSENTIALS TO SIVIART DRESSING 53 

foundation. When it sways a little, the great 
hat sways much more, and as a result the head 
is thrown out of place and the neck and shoul- 
ders distorted. 

Many a little woman with a big hat becomes 
a skillful contortionist, but the accomplishment 
is not a charming one. 

It is not the hat alone either that teaches this 
art. There are very tight sleeves that bind 
the arms to the body, and very tight skirts 
that prevent an easy and graceful use of the 
legs. There is the trailing skirt, too, that 
impedes and entangles. Then there are the 
many ways in which the hands are hampered, 
being called upon to do quite too many things, 
with gloves so tight that not one of them can 
be done properly. 

Shoes have something to do with the hobble 
or shuffle that goes for a walk, and not lectures 
but sermons might be written on the mis- 
takes, yes, the sins, of the feet. It is positively 
criminal the way some women outdo the Chi- 
nese in foot torture and then wonder why they 
are not comfortable and graceful. This is 
indeed a basic fault. 

Not far removed from this is the conventional 
garter which is generally too short and too 
tight, tending to throw the figure off its natural 



54 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

centre by pulling the body forward and giving 
the stoop of old age to the shoulders. Many 
women buy shoulder braces quite unnecessarily, 
for if they would lengthen their garters there 
would be no need of the braces. 

Then, of course, there are the corsets, the 
sleeves, the skirts and the coats. When these are 
eccentric fads, instead of sensible fashions, they 
impede free action and hold her as with a clog. 

Atalanta herself would have a sorry time 
of it encased in a corset almost down to her 
knees, and what, oh! what, would she do in a 
hobble skirt a yard and a half wide or in a 
voluminous skirt suggesting crinolines? Then 
coats are often far too heavy to be worn 
gracefully. A woman about to select a coat is 
often so charmed by its chic cut, rich material, 
and elaborate trimmings that she fails to think 
how hard it will be to carry such a weight. It 
is often an instance of the pygmy trying to 
wear the giant's clothes. 

Every woman should bear in mind that the 
carriage will help the figure, no matter how 
poor the figure may be. Of course, physical 
deficiencies do detract from smart dressing. 
They should be corrected as far as possible, 
and good carriage is the first step, and a long 
one, too, toward this improvement. 



ESSENTIALS TO SMART DRESSING 55 

Very much has been written, and truly, too, 
of the physical benefits derived from walking. 
But the walking should be correct walking, 
and correct walking is graceful walking. 

But walking is only one of the rational ways 
by which physical defects may be helped, if 
not remedied. Violent exercises should in all 
cases be avoided, but calisthenics are helpful. 
It is a great deal easier to persuade the body 
than to drive it. There is something, too, in 
having the physical ideal clearly in mind, 
which is to say, a woman must know what she 
wants to be before she can be it. 

Habit is another essential. There can be 
no vacations in correct dress. As the witty 
man cannot afford to be stupid, so the well- 
dressed woman must always be well dressed. It 
is expected of her, and any lapse would be a 
shock not only to her friends but to herself. 
Things that are hard to do are those that we 
do seldom. Habit makes them easy and a 
pleasure, too. Of course, there is infinite de- 
tail about this habit — not even the slightest 
thing can stand neglect. 

Vigilance is the price of good style as it is of 
liberty. 

However, it is the spirit that counts above 
all. The carriage may be perfect, the form 



56 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

ideal, the materials rich and fashioned with 
style, but if good taste is not there the result is 
no more than a lay figure. 

Good taste is the best dressmaker, and 
thought is her ablest forewoman. What, 
then, is good taste and how is it to be 
acquired.'^ 

It is what the best people like the most. It 
is a sense of fitness that comes either naturally 
or by education. Some women have it as a 
flower has its own beautiful colour, but more 
gain it through observation of others and study 
of themselves. 

There are women who, every one agrees, are 
well dressed, and the woman who is anxious to 
be refined in her dress taste should observe 
them closely. So, too, should she observe 
the modes, which, if they are not, at least 
should be, the result of good taste. 

All this observation will do much, but self- 
study will do more. Again, habit comes in to 
help. When once good taste becomes a habit 
it becomes fixed and natural. Good taste 
is particularly the close friend of the woman 
of moderate means. A queen and a peasant 
woman might put on the same cheap costume, 
but the queen would look queenly and the 
peasant woman would look countrified. 



ESSENTIALS TO SMART DRESSING 57 

It is not the cost of the material but the way 
in which it is worn that attracts. The woman 
of taste makes the most of everything, but 
the most of everything makes the ordinary 
woman still look ordinary. 

Shall another word be said here about horrible 
examples? Every one can see and sight them. 
Take low russet shoes with the satin dancing 
gown, the tailored shirt waist with the picture 
hat, the plain one-piece dress with the dressy 
satin or velvet coat, the diamond pendant 
with the tailored suit, and the fluffy silk and 
chiffon frock worn with the mannish covert 
jacket and hat, suitable only for an aviation 
meet. Is it any wonder that angels weep 
as often as they do. 

Shun the horrible example. Study the 
women of acknowledged good taste, for they 
choose the good styles and leave alone the bad 
ones. The woman who wishes to be well 
dressed and who strives to do much on a little 
soon learns that it is possible for little things 
to please as much as great ones. 

The eye of man is not analytical. When 
it is pleased it rests content. Good taste 
will cover a multitude of deficiencies. It will 
do even more. It will give to deficiencies the 
attribute of charm. 



CHAPTER IX 

ECONOMY IN DRESS 

FASHION may encourage extravagance, 
but it does not compel it. It is al- 
ways as possible to be temperate in 
buying as it is to be temperate in eating or 
drinking. One can look the other way, you 
know. 

There is nothing more foolish than to get in 
the habit of buying. At many a bargain sale 
it is the shrewd dealer who gets the bargain 
and the silly customer who is sold. 

Speaking of bargain sales, they show women 
more as they used to be than as they are com- 
ing to be — that is, as governed by a common 
impulse instead of each by her own mind. It 
is said that East Indian magicians hypnotize 
their subjects by having them gaze steadily at 
some bright object like a crystal. Women who 
frequent bargain sales are often hypnotized by 
a cheap and gaudy glitter. 

Besides, jealousy is really not a good quality in 

5S 



ECONOMY IN DRESS 59 

making purchases. Simply because one woman 
acts as if she couldn't live without a certain article 
is no reason why you couldn't live very nicely 
without it. How often does it happen that the 
much-wished-for article, when taken home, 
does not look as it seemed at the sale, but as it 
really is, and gets the back shelf in consequence. 

To buy for the sake of buying is like gambling 
at cards. Too often all that one gets is the 
excitement and the booby prize. 

The provident woman, on the other hand, 
when she goes to a bargain sale, knows what she 
is after and generally gets it at a considerable 
reduction. If she needs some new ribbon to 
make a bow or a rosette for her hat, why buy 
it one day at the regular counter and pay more 
for it than wait until, perhaps, the next day 
and get it at a much less price .^ Of course, in 
all such cases a bargain sale is a good thing. 

When a new stvle is announced, the best 
course is to wait. First prices are always the 
highest prices. They try it on the silly person 
in order to see how far they can go with the 
prudent person. 

Besides, a new style is an experimental 
style. The second thought as well as the second 
sight may discard it. Many an extravagant 
woman has a wardrobe full of fashionable 



60 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

things which even she may not wear. They are 
not even good enough to give away, because she 
must, at the same time, give herself away. 

The economical woman in dress is the prov- 
vident woman in dress. She buys what she 
wants, but never what she doesn't want. 
Things that are simply made to sell should be 
avoided. They should be made to be worn. 
The cheapest things are seldom the best, while, 
on the other hand, the best things are often 
the cheapest. 

Think of the imitations that are worked off 
on the unwary, especially the poor unwary. 
There are the imitation furs, the plush that 
passes for sealskin, and the cat that masquer- 
ades as a fox. 

There is the imitation jewellery often selected 
in the hope of brightening an old dress or worn 
hat. A woman is much better off without it 
than with it. It soon reveals its own base 
qualities and betrays her trust. 

There are imitation dress fabrics often more 
brilliant of hue than the standard goods, like 
crepe de chine that is almost all cotton and 
velvet with a shoddy back. Such fabrics are 
a snare and a disappointment and never repay 
the bent back and patient fingers for the hard 
work of making them up. They spot and fade 



ECONOMY IN DRESS 61 

and shrink and do all the evil things good 
clothes would be ashamed to do. 

It is extravagant to cast aside things as no 
longer stylish when the new style is a mere 
matter of rearrangement. When it comes to 
the use of new and untried materials. Lady 
Fashion is conservative and cautious. She 
sticks to the old lines and seeks new effects. 
Think of the centuries that velvet, feathers, 
laces and furs have been worn, yet in every few 
years worn in a very different way. 

What the French dressmaker can do by a 
twist and a turn, the woman of moderate 
means can also do with her old but not worn 
materials, when her hand has also the cunning. 

It is economy to be able to do for one's self. 
Why not, indeed, when, if a woman will use 
her eyes and brain, the shop windows and the 
magazines will give her practical instruction. 
The ability comes with the doing. Gradually 
a woman may learn what is best for herself 
and how to make that best. 

There is a friendliness, too, to these old 
materials. They partake of the home; they 
partake even of the personality. They give 
back attractiveness in gratitude for being worn 
so much. Very often old clothes like old friends 
wear the best. 



69 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

Care will do much to give these old clothes 
the smartness but not the stiffness of the shop. 
A good deal of awkwardness, by the way, 
comes from the stiffness of clothes that have 
not been broken in and trained. 

The economical woman knows how to press 
and freshen. She knows the art of making a 
little new thing do much. Her wardrobe is a 
sanitarium for clothes. When they come out, 
it is as if they had been made over again. 

But the economical woman has stock things 
that are new. She has a tailor-made suit, 
inconspicuous in colour and not extreme in its 
style. The fabric of it is first class and it is 
made just as it should be, with care in the 
smallest detail. Such a suit becomes a standby 
for several seasons. This enables her to buy 
new and fetching accessories to wear with it 
that both change and adapt the suit to many 
and varied occasions. 

With a severely tailored silk waist that 
harmonizes with the colouring of the suit she 
is appropriately dressed for shopping and 
general everyday wear. With a costume blouse 
of silk and chiffon, she turns her tailored 
suit into a costume quite au fait for afternoon 
teas. 

A new belt will give this suit a new look. 



ECONOMY IN DRESS 68 

A collar and cuff set of antique lace will give 
the air of elegance to it. And there are no 
end of effects that can be obtained by such little 
trifles as neck bows and jabots and tulle rosettes. 

Indeed, the resourceful woman with a single 
suit is continually playing the game of now you 
see it and now you don't. 

The economical woman should have a feather 
— such a long, beautiful feather, too, as the 
fashionable and extravagant woman is sure 
to have, but the economical woman takes care 
of hers and wears it for a lifetime instead of a 
season. It is nearly impossible to wear out a 
good feather; while, on the other hand, you 
can always wear it out — don't you see? 

The economical woman should never buy 
cheap shoes. They ruin an otherwise fetch- 
ing costume by their purely commercial lines. 
They soon wear out, and before they do you 
wish they would. The foot, like the hand, 
requires the finest covering. 

The term "lady" is becoming so obsolete 
that often one asks: **What is a lady?" One 
thing is certain, a lady always wears the finest 
gloves and the best of shoes. Perhaps those 
who do not know what she is may recognize 
her by them. 

The economical woman will take care always 



64 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

to wear becoming clothes. The becoming 
lines will hide much that is out of date. 

The time is coming when such an admiring 
remark as, "Why, that dress must have cost 
a small fortune," will never be heard. The 
gown of the perfectly dressed woman is never 
costly — it is beyond cost. Why is this so.^ 
Because there is no shop, even in Paris, where 
good taste can be bought. 

This should be an inspiration to the woman 
of small means. She has it within herself 
to present always an attractive appearance. 

The mere material should be a slave rather 
than a master. It is the impression of the 
whole that does it — it is the impression in 
dress that counts. 



CHAPTER X 



COLOURS 



LUCKILY, it was a man — Joseph, with 
his coat of many colours — who set 
the bad fashion of a lot of colours 
in dress. 

The woman of refinement, when devising 
her dress, never uses a big brush or a well- 
filled palette. She just touches with colour, 
even as Dame Nature does, who is mistress 
of the art of colour. 

"But there is the rainbow, " one may object. 
Well, the especial charm of the rainbow is 
that it is a good way off and doesn't stay 
long. Who would like to live with one.f^ 

Now, the love of indiscriminate colour 
dates back to primeval days. The tattooed 
savage, the be-blanketed squaw, the gypsy, 
picturesque only at a distance, all believe that 
to be conspicuous is to be beautiful. The 
truth is that beauty is conspicuous because it 
is beautiful. 

65 



66 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

The newer the wealth, the sharper this 
craving for a confusion of colours. Some of 
our new-rich women seem to have as their 
motto, "Never put off until to-morrow what 
you can put on to-day." They certainly live 
up to it. 

In colour, as in every other accessory of 
dress, the middle course is the safest course. 
Good taste is neither an alarmist nor an ex- 
tremist. 

Colour in dress depends much upon age 
and existing conditions, such as environment 
and climate. Colour combinations, excus- 
able in the young, are unpardonable in the old; 
and Nature herself teaches this lesson. The 
birds when they mate are of gay plumage, 
but the old bird is always the dark and sober 
bird. 

So, too, the young matron may wear what 
the widow should never wear — though only 
the Lord knows what some widows will wear, 
notwithstanding. 

Environment should influence the use of 
colours. The average American woman can- 
not dress in the vivid colours of the Spanish 
belle. If she did, she would look as if on her 
way to bal masque. She has not the romantic 
setting of the senorita. The American woman's 



COLOURS 67 

atmosphere is too sharp and clear; she is self- 
conscious instead of unconscious. 

Nor can she dress like the French woman, 
for she has not her natural audacity. The 
Parisienne's costume is as much a part of her 
personality as her roguish glance, her expres- 
sive gestures, shrugs, and postures, as even the 
frou-frou of her gown. Whatever she wears 
is a part of her fascination; and this natural 
fascination is so compelling that one does 
not stop to analyze it. It takes centuries of 
inbreeding to wear red and green and yellow, 
and yet seem perfectly dressed. While the 
shadow of the Puritan lowers over the American 
woman who dares. 

Even the climate itself is against any such 
exuberance of colour. Its tendency is to 
exaggerate, to accentuate. There is no rose 
so gorgeous as the American rose. One should 
therefore be chary of solid colours. Like 
solid food, they are apt to be a little too 
hearty. 

The nature of colours should also be care- 
fully considered. Some are shrewish and 
spiteful, while others are kind and greatly 
to be trusted. The choice of a wrong colour 
may ruin a costume. The choice of the 
right colour may make it a success. 



68 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

Every woman should have her favourite 
colour; but there should be good reasons of 
her own for its being her favourite colour. It 
should be the colour that is most becoming 
to her; that shows the best of her and shades 
the worst of her. It is marvellous what can 
be done by a skilful blending of the artificial 
hues of dress with the natural hues of the 
person. Harsh lines and surfaces are oblit- 
erated; and there comes a soft loveliness like 
the lingering of the afterglow in the twilight. 
Such effects are seldom the result of elabora- 
tion. The most effective colour is often the 
simplest colour. 

In choosing correct colours for individual 
types, one should first have a definite idea of 
what effect one wishes the ensemble to produce. 
Is it harmony, or is it contrast? 

For instance, a brunette with brilliant 
colouring of her own may wear crimson, rich 
blues and warm greens if she wishes the 
general effect to be one of brilliancy. If, 
on the other hand, she wishes to emphasize 
her own colouring by the contrast of her dress, 
then she will wear such dull, neutral colours 
as sage green, blue, gray, and tan, which are 
usually dedicated to the use of blondes. 

This principle is illustrated in the pictures 



COLOURS 69 

of Corot and many other painters of the 
Barbion school where a crimson roof, the 
scarlet blouse of a fisherman, the red cap of 
a peasant or some other detail is introduced 
to bring out the characteristically restful qual- 
ity of the greens. 

In considering the brunette with brilliant 
colouring, the brunette with the sallow shades 
must not be overlooked. She cannot wear 
what she will. Her muddy complexion re- 
quires skilful treatment. She must know the 
curative power of colours before deciding. 
Perhaps the best thing for her to do is to 
match the eyes and the hair. 

If the hair is "coal black," choose black 
for your colour, with old or yellowish laces 
near the face. Avoid white near the face, for 
it will emphasize the yellow tones of the skin, 
and make you look more sallow than you 
really are. Dull gold jewellery you will find 
becoming, but flee from blue as you would 
from the wrath to come. Blue, favourite among 
colours as it is, cannot always be depended 
upon. For the sallow brunette, it is impos- 
sible; since it is the complement of yellow 
and must bring out all the yellow tints lurking 
in the skin. 

Of all types of women, the blonde with the 



70 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

brilliant hues has the easiest, happiest time 
in choosing becoming colours. The blue of 
her eyes, the reddish yellow of her hair and 
the pink of her cheeks suggest the use of vio- 
lets in which blues and reds are intermingled 
proportionately to her eyes and complexion. 
A warm violet gray is apt to be charming on 
such a woman; but she must remember that 
if her colouring is warm she should not choose 
an absolutely cold colour for her dress, for 
the contrast will be crude. Pink to match 
her cheeks will be becoming, as will be a tint 
of blue to blend with her eyes. Both black 
and white may be worn effectively by this 
brilliant blonde. 

The woman with light hair and fair skin 
inclined to pallor may wear soft pink, but 
not a pink so deep as to overpower the delicacy 
of her colouring. The rosy reflection will 
serve the purpose of making her cheeks look 
pinker than they really are. Oftentimes the 
pale girl hears the greeting, "How well you 
are looking." She smiles to herself, for she 
knows that the remark is due solely to a well- 
devised touch of colour. Brown, dark red, 
and light blue will also be becoming colours 
for her. 

The girl with auburn hair will look well in 



COLOURS 71 

deep plum, a brown that tones with her hair, 
dark blue, dark green, or both light and dark 
gray. 

The woman w^hose hair is gray should wear 
dark colours; especially if there is a yellowish 
tinge to the gray that is reflected in her com- 
plexion. She will look much younger if she 
gets a dark note under her chin. Gray is 
also her colour, but not a gray lighter than 
her hair. She may also wear mauve, deep 
shades of violet, and clear shades of black and 
white in closely mingled patterns. 

The use and abuse of colour in dress is a 
study which never ceases. One can never 
be finished with it. A woman should not fol- 
low general rules without first studying her 
individual colouring, precisely as an artist 
would study it in order to determine on the 
kind of background he should use for her 
portrait. Such terms as red and blue, used 
independently, mean nothing at all. 

A red with purplish shadows may have the 
effect of a cold colour; while a blue of the 
robin's-egg variety, hovering between blue 
and green, may be quite warm in tone. 

I have seen a magnificent blonde, with 
yellowish brown hair and eyes a bit browner, 
and a creamy complexion heightened by the 



72 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

vivid red of cheeks and lips, look like a Vene- 
tian beauty of the sixteenth century in a 
costume of bronze velvet, gold in the lights 
and tawny in the shadows, with feathers of 
the same colour in her hat and a heavy gold 
chain, with topaz ornaments, about her neck. 
She was an artist's wife, and knew the par- 
ticular harmony that could be made with her 
colouring, which in the conventional blue or 
green dedicated to blondes would have lost en- 
tirely its glowing quality and have looked a 
little heavy. So much for the touch of an 
artist's hand. 

A minor detail that should be studied in 
order to wear becoming colours is artificial 
light. The belles of long ago had an easier 
time of it; for the glow of wax candles resembles 
the daylight in that it does not change or 
distort. Indeed, it has something of the 
unreal charm of moonlight. With gas came 
disheartening discoveries of how delicate and 
changeable is the most reliable colour under 
it; while electricity is apt to blight with its 
deep, sharp shadows. 

Colours, then, are a very important part 
of a liberal education in dress. To wear one 
colour well, one must be artistic; to wear more 
than one well, one must be an artist. Indeed, 



COLOURS 73 

unless the relationship and dependency of 
colours each upon the other, and still more 
the repugnancy which one colour may have 
for another, are thoroughly understood, a 
a safe rule for the use of various distinctive 
colours in a costume is the old, familiar one, 
"Don't." 



CHAPTER XI 

DRESS ACCESSORIES 

OF COURSE, you know the woman 
who dresses Hke every other woman? 
You remember her in sort of a collec- 
tive sense, and it is not a very pleasing sense 
either. She is a duplicate that makes no 
distinct impression on your mind. She lacks 
personality. She simply goes along. 

Perhaps it is her manner which is devoid 
of character. Perhaps it is her dress which 
is without individual charm. But whatever 
the reason of the defect, there must be a remedy 

for it. 

Since these are dress talks, let us consider 

the responsibility of dress in achieving dis- 
tinctiveness, always remembering that when 
dress reaches its perfection a perfect manner 
attends it. 

If all women dressed alike, no matter how 
rich the fabric or how chic and clever the cut, 
their dress would be accepted without being 
noticed. A uniform has its greatest distinc- 

74 



DRESS ACCESSORIES 75 

tion either when it has never been seen except 
on one person alone, and thus the sense of 
uniformity is entirely eliminated, or when it 
is worn by a number of persons acting together, 
because then it gives the impression of an 
individual type. 

Charm in dress is hard to define, yet all are 
swift to recognize it. There is always an unex- 
pected quality in it. It piques and holds the 
attention through a variation which is an im- 
provement of the usual. 

And this unexpected quality is most often 
the expression of individual taste, introduced 
into the costume by different smart little acces- 
sories. These give the touch of life to dress 
which saves it from monotony. 

Of course, the wearing has much to do with 
it. In identically the same dress a queen 
would look queenly, while a milkmaid would 
still be the milkmaid. But between these 
extremes of class there is a vast multitude of 
women who slavishly follow each season the 
prevailing fashion, not only in dress but in 
manner and carriage, even as the soldiers of 
an army obey an order from headquarters. 
To each one of these women who wishes 
always to look her best the accessory is often 
a saving grace. 



76 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

It is right here that self-knowledge and 
taste have the better of wealth. The only 
eye which cost first attracts is the eye of 
the trader. The ordinary observer says, 
" She is prettily dressed," before saying, 
"she is richly dressed," The one expression 
is a part of human nature; the other is a part 
of human ceremony. Were it otherwise, our 
millionairesses would be vying with one an- 
other in costumes made of hundred and thou- 
sand-dollar bills. 

There is an incalculable fortune awaiting the 
genius who is able to sell personal charm. 

Style and fashion are the features of dress, 
but accessories are its expression. The dress 
which lacks accessories — touches of in- 
dividual taste — is like the dress on a form in 
the shop. It is dumb. The dress which is 
vibrant with impressions is the dress -which 
reveals the life of the wearer. It is distinctive, 
because its accessories make it so. They sound 
the personal note. 

A wax flower may be a perfect copy of a 
flower in natural bloom, but it still is as dead 
as wax. Will any woman say that she loves it.^^ 

A famous character in fiction became known 
as "The Lady of the Camelias," Why? She 
had rare jewels and laces and the costliest 



DRESS ACCESSORIES 77 

of gowns. And yet the flower which she 
intuitively wore was so associated with her as 
to be her type. It was because that flower 
became her most and gave her the most per- 
sonal distinction. It was that and that alone 
which was remembered of her even as she 
herself was remembered. 

An accessory may be a very humble detail 
of dress and yet give tone to the whole costume. 
In selecting accessories for different costumes, 
it is important that the right accessory be 
used with the right costume. 

In an attractive face, you know, the features 
and the expression match. Together they make 
what charms. 

Study the costume first in deciding on 
the right accessories for it, even as you would 
study a picture, but a picture not quite com- 
plete. What are the touches that the picture 
needs to bring out its true meaning and its 
best points? Such are the accessories that a 
particular costume requires. 

Here are some mental pictures to consider 
which may illustrate this point: There is 
the typical American Summer Girl in her 
shirt-waist suit. She is the tailor-made type. 
Imagine her first in her smart linen skirt and 
her plain shirt waist of the same material. The 



78 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

suit is white, and she wears with it a plain 
linen turn-down collar, such as she and thou- 
sands of other women buy in the shops at 
two for a quarter. Say her belt is white 
linen or white ribbon, equally commonplace. 
How distinct an impression does she make 
on you? Not a very significant one, unless 
her personality happens to be such that you 
forget the dress in the person. 

Now, let us picture another girl who knows 
how much the little accessories of dress count. 
She is wearing the same white shirt-waist 
suit made in the same style; but there is a 
difference, a chicness, in the whole effect. 
You are conscious of it at first glance, though 
you don't know just what it is. But the 
second glance, which is sure to follow, is sure 
to tell you. 

There are little individual touches in this 
girl's shirt-waist suit that make it a specially dis- 
tinctive and attractive costume. There is her 
collar, for instance, a linen one to be sure, for 
that is the only appropriate collar to wear with a 
tailored shirt waist. But this one has a Httle 
over-collar of Irish lace, and the jabot worn with 
it has some of the same Irish lace as a finish. 
It is a jabot of the finest of plaited linen and 
it is in a new shape. The under part is plaited, 



DRESS ACCESSORIES T9 

the centre forming a box plait which shows 
an inset of Irish lace. The over jabot is 
also plaited, but the linen before being plaited 
is cut so that it falls in two deep points. Both 
over and under jabots are edged with a narrow 
frill of cream-colour Valenciennes lace. The 
effect is novel and pretty. Then there is the 
belt of linen, too, but fastening in front with 
a buckle covered with the Irish crochet lace. 

Perhaps, this shirt-waist girl, who looks 
well to the accessories of her dress, intro- 
duces a touch of colour in her otherwise 
white suit. Her linen turn-down collar may 
be embroidered in each corner with a small 
violet worked in violet floss, and her double- 
tab linen jabot may have its edges scalloped 
in violet. Then a violet may be embroidered 
in crest form on her pocket, or as a medallion 
to ornament her belt. If she carries a parasol, 
it is apt to be of violet silk, and her shoes and 
stockings are violet-hued too. This is the 
girl you remember, if for no other reason than 
just her clothes; while the young man who 
meets her carries aw^ay with him an ideal of 
"The Lady of the Violets." 

But there are pretty sure to be other reasons, 
too, for remembering the girl who is capable 
of studying out charming little effects in her 



80 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

clothes. She has resources of her own, and 
the more you know her, the better you Hke 
her. Insipidity of character predicates insipidity 
in dress. 

The young woman, or the older woman 
for that matter, who has tried and found 
becoming some special accessory, should wear 
it so often that it is associated with her. She 
should make it her own. A bow or rosette 
in a certain unusual form, for instance, may 
be developed in different colours and materials 
and used in many different ways. 

Take a rosette of black satin, framed in 
narrow frills of very yellow lace. When made 
rather large, it might be used as a finish for 
the back of a girdle and have depending from 
it two large black satin sash ends. The rosette 
used in this way might serve as the one neces- 
sary distinctive note to the costume. ' Then this 
same rosette might be made in miniature and 
be used to take the place of buttons on some 
soft frock light in colour. Again, the rosette, 
this time larger, might form a smart finishing 
touch to a plain hat. 

The accessory developed in black is very 
apt to be becoming. 

Just recall for yourself how well the woman 
with a long slender throat looks if her throat is 




''This is Ihe (fir! you rememhei 



DRESS ACCESSORIES 81 

enriched by a band of black velvet. It may be 
plain; it may be caught with diamond buckles; 
but just so long as it is black, it is becoming. 

The black lace scarf has a magic touch of 
becomingness lurking in its folds, especially 
when worn with a white or delicately tinted 
silk or satin gown. 

Right here let us emphasize the power of 
the scarf. It often gives the one redeeming 
colour note to a characterless gown. It is 
a help to the awkward woman, diverting] her 
attention from herself. It is magic to the 
graceful woman, the soft, waving web with 
which she allures and binds and holds. There 
is a fascination in the scarf. The Spanish 
senorita knows it. So did the ladies of 
Charles the Second's court, whose dreamy 
loveliness Lely has immortalized. 

Garnitures of jet, especially in fringed 
effects, often transform a commonplace gown 
into a distinctive costume. A flat, black 
satin collar in a variety of shapes, with an 
applique of old lace or embroidered batiste 
upon it, may give this costume an almost unac- 
countable charm. Its shape must be decided 
upon according to its special adaptability to 
the wearer. 

Always, let it be repeated, there must be 



82 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

personal adaptation in order to secure personal 
effect. 

Even so little a thing as the handkerchief 
may become a telling accessory of dress. 
The handkerchief has always been idealized ; it 
peculiarly has the personal quality. It is 
dainty, or it is less than nothing. It retains 
the essence of personality — the shade of an 
individual perfume. It m^ay be both a me- 
mento and a memory. Could all the hand- 
kerchiefs be recovered that have been stolen 
and treasured by lovers, the world's supply 
would not need increase for many years. 

Then there is the belt, of which the poets 
of all ages have sung as the Girdle of Venus. 
It is really impossible to number the scalps 
that victorious woman has hanging from her 
belt. It generally is in fashion, and always 
should be; and to the woman who studies her 
own individuality and has a sense of the 
artistic it proves a fascinating accessory. 
In the belt, many times, lies the one effective 
touch of colour; while its odd buckle may 
give a novel and refreshing tone to the whole 
costume. Keep the belt inconspicuous if the 
waist is large. You may have it as deep and 
as unique of form as you please if the waist 
is small and tapering. 



DRESS ACCESSORIES 88 

The bag, like the belt, is an important 
accessory; it also tells plainly the personality 
of the wearer. It may harmonize in tone 
with the costume, or it may smartly con- 
trast with it; but it must be new in shape and 
suggest the prevailing fashion through a 
chicness of its own. There is but one thing 
to do with an old, dowdy bag. Throw it away. 

All these accessories, while actively giving 
distinction, are themselves independent. They 
are little things often that may escape notice 
while causing notice. They are the blend 
that itself may be lost in the perfect union it 
produces. On the other hand, they are often 
the keynote by which the strain that has 
charmed is remembered. 

Wealth may buy these things, or thrift may 
make them; but it is taste that must put 
them on. 

Taste, then, is the one thing needful. With- 
out it, a woman is clad; with it, a woman is 
dressed. 



CHAPTER XII 



SPECIAL WARDROBES 



THE twin sister of individuality in dress 
is suitability in dress. The one suits 
the dress to the person; the other 
suits the dress to the occasion. In correct 
dress they each play an important role. 

Nowadays the composite American woman 
is very busy in her work and play. It is a 
duty of modern dress to make her work more 
effective and her play more enjoyable. 

The many and varied interests of the woman 
of to-day are shown in the great diversity of her 
dress; for as woman has developed, so her 
dress has developed with her. 

Let us see how dress may make or mar these 
various parts a woman now fills on the stage 
of life. 

There is the home woman. Let us con- 
sider her as a type first and foremost, as 
she should be considered. Her morning 
dress should reflect the home. It should be 

84 



SPECIAL WARDROBES 85 

as cheery and dainty as the breakfast over 
which she presides. It should set an example 
to children. A slattern may scold as much 
as she pleases, but she will still have slatterns 
about her. 

Of course, the morning dress of the home 
woman must suit her position in life. If she 
is a busy housewife with the breakfast to super- 
intend and the house to put in order, she should 
wear a trim, one-piece gown of some washable 
material like chambray or percale. 

The colour should be becoming; the style 
simple. A shirt-waist suit, with the waist and 
skirt joined at the belt, will be found satisfac- 
tory, and it should button straight up the 
front, because the minutes in the morning have 
special flying propensities, and each second 
saved is a second that counts for twice as much. 
A turn-down collar of the material may be 
worn instead of a stiff linen collar, and sleeves 
may be three-quarter length, a style which 
always suggests charming domesticity. This 
little morning dress, ho wever, should be modified 
to suit the individuality of the wearer. It will 
surely fulfil its mission if trimness is its chief 
characteristic. 

Now if the home woman is the woman of 
leisure, her morning dress should reflect this 



86 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

fact. She should dress to set off and give 
added charm to her surroundings. 

She should have breakfast sacques, soft and 
frilly and delicate of colour, and skirts to wear 
with them. She may have wrappers, of course, 
but they must be glorified wrappers, crisp and 
pretty without a suggestion of a hurried rising 
and toilette. They should not, however, be 
elaborate tea-gowns, overtrimmed with ribbons 
and lace. The silk and chiffon boudoir rest- 
ing gown to wear when lights are dim is not 
appropriate for breakfast wear in the broad 
sunlight. 

Let the breakfast dress of the woman whose 
morning hours are not hurried emphasize 
daintiness and freshness. An Empire gown of 
challis, with a silk figure or stripe, trimmed with 
ribbon velvet, or a cotton crepe, albatross or 
India silk gown, having just a touch of lace to 
add to its softness, would surely look well. 

It is important, however, even with a negligee 
that the design of the gown be becoming to the 
wearer. No person of taste will look twice 
at a gown that anybody may wear. 

Clothes for morning wear are for outdoors 
as well as indoors. In considering these special 
wardrobes, only general suggestions can be 
given — the outlines of the picture really — 



SPECIAL WARDROBES 87 

the other details must be supplied by each 
individual wearer. In the last analysis it is 
individual taste that counts the most. 

The correct costume for outdoor morning 
wear is the coat and skirt suit of some such 
fabric as serge, cheviot, or mannish suiting. 
Of course, tailored styles are the best, and in- 
conspicuous colours. Leave the broadcloths 
md velvets for calling costumes, and let the 
I'ads and frills of dress be introduced there too. 

With the evening comes more elaborate dress. 
The fashionable woman needs dinner gowns, 
theatre and opera gowns and ball costumes. 
The more cultivated she is, the more she has 
made the art of dress the study it should be, 
the finer and more appropriate are the dis- 
tinctions between these attires. 

In planning them she must first have a 
definite idea of the prevailing mode as to 
fabrics and outline. Then, if she is wise, she 
will modify the present style to her own type; 
and whether she is planning one gown or a 
dozen gowns, let each be distinctive and each 
suit the occasion on which it is to be worn. 

It is well to bear in mind that the trimming of a 
gown may give a distinctive touch to it, and 
that in a measure it acts as an index to the 
dress, putting the gown in its own class. 



88 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

Never use the same type of trimming on your 
evening gowns. If the dancing frock is 
trimmed with artificial flowers of chiffon and 
satin, have the ball gown trimmed with fur, or 
gold or silver embroideries. A woman with 
one trimming is a woman of one-dress idea, 
and not much of an idea at that. 

It goes without saying that a little good 
trimming is better than a lot of inferior trim- 
ming. When economy must be given at least a 
passing thought, a good quality of velvet or 
brocade is a better investment than some 
prevailing fad in silks or even some exquisite 
shade of chiffon. There is always the next 
year to bear in mind. 

The business woman has special dress needs 
of her own. Negligees and dainty dressing 
sacques play no part in her morning wardrobe. 
Smart looking tailored shirt waists and well- 
cut skirts take their place. The well-poised 
young business woman is prepared for every 
emergency. She never becomes an object of 
solicitude to her employer. No matter how 
varied and villainous the weather, she should 
have clothes to suit it. 

Her wardrobe must either be an extensive 
one, or her clothes must all be selected to play 
a double part. Among the necessities should 



SPECIAL WARDROBES 89 

be a long separate coat, made in a conventional 
style, a coat which will not soon look out of 
date, a perfectly made tailored suit, and shirt 
waists of both silk and durable wash fabrics; 
also a generous supply of good shoes, walking 
gloves, and smart belts and neckwear. At least 
two hats are also necessary; a distinct suit 
hat and a hat which will look well with any 
clothes. 

There are many special wardrobes for the 
well-dressed woman which should be planned 
along the same lines whether she goes out to 
business or stays at home. Clothes for a rainy 
day, for outdoor sports, and for travelling may 
be mentioned. In all these instances, the 
woman who would be correctly dressed must be 
careful to avoid the incongruous note. 

Don't put your money in awell-made, smart- 
looking cravenette coat for instance, and then 
wear with it a hat which has distinct picture 
lines. The plain tailored soft felt or rough 
straw walking hat or turban, with a quill or 
merely a ribbon band and rosette for trimming, 
belongs with the raincoat. Remember to 
have every detail of the rainy day wardrobe in 
harmony. Don't wear light gloves, or shoes 
with French heels. Have stout shoes, and 
rubbers, too, that will fit them. 



00 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

If you are going automobiling, dress as though 
you were. Let your costume, even to the 
minutest detail, be a protection. Remember 
that dust and wind will go with you when 
flying through the country in a motor car. 
Don't wear motor togs to attract attention. 
Just wear sensible clothes, and keep the colours, 
if not dark, at least neutral. It is unwise 
to look like either a fairy or a fright. 

In special wardrobes for athletic sports 
avoid masculine effects. Remember that she 
who assumes mannishness admits the inferior- 
ity of her sex. It is the womanly woman 
that men fall in love v/ith, not poor copies of 
themselves. 

Don't wear mannish outing shirts, for in- 
stance, with your golf or tennis skirt. You 
can be just as comfortable and play the game 
fully as well if you select a simple blouse which 
has enough of a dainty look of femininity about 
it to proclaim at first glance that it was made 
for a nice girl and not for a mere man. The 
first glance will not be the only glance, you may 
be sure. 

In travelling, more than under any other 
circumstances, is a woman's sense of fitness 
put to the test. 

Some women have an idea that a journey 



SPECIAL WARDROBES. 91 

is a time for display. It is — but only for a 
display of common sense. When a woman 
travels, she should dress inconspicuously. It 
is not necessary for her to wear her fine clothes; 
the consciousness that she has them will more 
than answer the purpose. 

If "By their clothes ye shall judge them" 
is a fair test, it is a regretful truth that for- 
eigners must think that many of our women 
who travel abroad are fearfully and wonder- 
fully made. 

Don't take your fine frocks to Europe. 
If an occasion comes up abroad when a fine 
gown is needed, buy it there if possible, and pay 
the duty on it, too, when you return. The less 
clothes a woman takes with her on her travels 
the better off she is. A fat pocketbook is 
better than a big trunk. 

But though the travelling wardrobe should 
be small, it must be right. Every woman 
who thinks can plan it best for herself. But 
she will be wise not to forget the long coat 
which will entirely cover the dress, the simply 
made dinner gown which can be worn low neck 
or high neck by means of a guimpe and which 
should be of some material that will not lose 
all its good looks in packing — like foulard 
silk or pongee. Clothes never should travel 



9ft THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

for their health, by the way; for there is no 
improvement in it for them. 

Then there is the walking skirt, made a bit 
shorter than usual, and the comfortable shirt 
waists of outing flannels, cotton cheviot and 
madras. Of course, the short skirt needs to 
have a coat to match, and a coat set or two 
to change the effect on occasions. Then 
there are the very necessary veils and the com- 
fortable shoes; to say nothing of a restful pair 
of slippers. 

Even for a long trip abroad, two hats are 
quite sufficient; a travelling hat plain and tail- 
ored in effect, and one with which a veil may 
be nicely worn, and what is known as a demi- 
dress hat of velvet or satin or straw, according 
to the season. 

This hat should be of the adaptable sort, 
and different trimmings should be packed 
with it, such as a band of gold and a satin 
rosette, a crown of silver lace, a big chou 
of some pretty bright shade of velvet — any 
trimming novelty in fact which can be 
packed without injury and has a transform- 
ing quality. 

There is a lesson for women to learn from 
special wardrobes. It is that the well-dressed 
woman is always the well-dressed woman. 



SPECIAL WARDROBES 93 

No matter what the change or what the emer- 
gency, she fits the scene. 

First, one accepts her naturally as a very 
part of the scene. Then one is impressed 
with the fact that she is adding charm to it. 
And then comes the knowledge that she is 
able to do this through the suitability of her 
dress. 

The quality of dress is like to the quality 
of a pair of scales. When it varies either too 
much or too little, even by the merest trifle, 
then it is incorrect. 



CHAPTER Xm 

JEWELLERY 

HAVE you ever thought of reading a 
woman's character by the jewellery 
she wears? If not, try it. You will 
find it an interesting study; for it will tell you 
much that neither you nor she knows. 

In fact, jewellery is a key to the character of 
its wearer. The woman who wears the right 
jewels at the right time has gone far toward be- 
ing the right woman in the right place. That is 
to say, she is in harmony with her surroundings. 

Through her study and understanding of her- 
self and her adornment she realizes that 
jewels count even m^ore for individual effective- 
ness than do gowns. They have their special 
harmonies of colour. When these match 
with the harmony of the person, the effect 
is most beautiful. When they do not, the 
effect is barbaric and jarring. 

Jewels of themselves are sympathetic — far 
more so than flowers, which cannot endure. In 

94 



JEWELLERY 95 

a way they partake of their wearer's nature 
and share in her fortunes. The ancients 
firmly believed in the sympathy of jewels. 
Pearls were said to fade or crumble when the 
one who had worn them long or lovingly, died, 
while the evil reputation which has so per- 
sistently clung to the opal, diminishing much 
the price if not the value of this rare and exqui- 
site gem, is another trace of this old superstition. 

The faith in talismans, amulets, and stones 
of ill omen continued undisputed during the 
middle ages and is strong to this day. The 
truthlies in the association. Through their 
durability, jewels gather unto themselves the 
sweet and bitter memories of years. They may 
represent a family or even an age; or again, 
only one precious event in the life of the wearer. 
When you see a woman who wears continuously 
a ring or a brooch which is far less beautiful 
than many of the gems she owns and shuns, 
then you may know that such a jewel is an 
intimate friend that encourages, comforts or 
warns with a knowledge as full and true as 
that which lies deep in her own bosom. 

Now, women may draw a lesson worth 
learning from the study of jewellery and its 
indiscriminate use. 

Individual taste should be followed in the 



\ 

/ 



96 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

selection of jewellery, for it becomes in a way a 
criterion of the taste of the wearer. If it be 
crude, grotesque of design or gaudy, then she 
who wears it advertises herself as lacking re- 
refinement. 

Many an ugly or inappropriate piece of 
jewellery is but an emblem of membership 
in the vast and ever increasing Society of the 
Vulgar. 

Therefore, don't buy jewellery indiscrim- 
inately. It cannot be properly bought by the 
weight or the sample. Let it have some other 
value besides its commercial one. Buy, if you 
can afford it, what especially appeals to you, and 
then wear it lovingly. 

In regard to imitation jewellery, the rule is 
simple and without exception: The genuine 
or none. But what about the poor who have an 
inherent love of ornament as well as the rich.'* 
Such a rule, it may be said, would bar the poor 
from ever having any jewellery to wear with 
their best clothes; and then they would never 
feel well dressed. 

Well, poverty does prevent many material 
joys, but it may enhance that meek and 
quiet spirit which the Bible advises for orna- 
ment. And many a poor mother takes as 
much pride in her children as did Roman 



JEWELLERY 97 

Cornelia when she said, "These are my 
jewels. " 

After all, the heart is the mine which can pro- 
duce the rarest and most precious of gems. 

But even the poor woman or girl may have 
one piece of jewellery through inheritance or 
saving. To her there will be much more joy 
of possession than ever comes to the woman 
of wealth and fashion who keeps her jewels, rare, 
for the most part, in a safety-deposit vault, and 
is dogged by a detective when she does wear 
them. The poor woman makes a friend of her 
one gem; she treasures it, she loves it. It is 
not so much having as knowing and prizing 
that counts. 

This woman of wealth, generally speaking, 
is not on very intimate terms with her pro- 
fusion of jewels — who ever does love a crowd .^^ 
Many of them she scarcely knows by sight. 
Frequently, one means no more to her than an- 
other; for the meaning of each is its cost. They 
are slaves that help to adorn her; and then, 
when their duty is done, are put out of 
sight. 

Remember, a sham has no enduring qualities. 
Imitation jewellery looks best on the day it is 
bought, if it has any good looks at all. It 
must be taken on faith — a most restricted 



98 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

faith — which no one can experience except the 
wearer herself. 

Cf course, it is only the cheap imitations 
which are meant, like the large solitaire dia- 
mond that can be purchased for $4.95. Such 
imitation gems are generally displayed in shop 
windows ablaze with electric lights. These 
windows are lighted in this way for a twofold 
purpose: one to allure the unwary passerby, 
and the other to supply for the time of pur- 
chase the essential sparkle and lustre. The 
"solitaire" only shows its true nature when 
away from these dazzling lights; and then it 
looks like what it is in reality, a piece of glass. 
But then it is too late, for both it and its pur- 
chaser have been sold. 

Now, it is unwise to pay $4.95 for a sham. 
It is unwise to spend the money just to empha- 
size a shoddy trait in one's character. It is 
unwise, also, because for the same sum a 
piece of hand- wrought jewellery may be bought, 
something rather small, to be sure, but having 
intrinsic worth and good of its kind. Why buy 
a ring set with a bit of worthless though cleverly 
cut glass for $4.95 when you can have a lace- 
pin, for instance, of hand-wrought silver, set 
with a small but genuine topaz or amethyst? 

The semi-precious stones, like the aquama- 



JEWELLERY 99 

rine, the turquoise, the oHvine and the tourma- 
line, which are so much in vogue to-day, must 
not, in any way, be confounded with imitation 
"jewels. " They have an intrinsic value and 
beauty of their own; and many times they give 
the finishing and appropriate touch to the cos- 
tume in a way no other ornament can. 

These semi-precious stones are most used in 
hand-wrought jewellery, which year by year, 
since the revival of the handicrafts, has grown 
more beautiful. To-day, no matter how varied 
and costly her collection of conventional 
jewellery may be, a woman of wealth and taste 
wishes to possess at least one or two rings and 
brooches that are hand wrought and have 
been made exclusively for her, with the agree- 
ment that the design shall never be duplicated. 
In such as these there lies distinction. 

Here again may be noted woman's growing 
fondness for things individual. It is not only 
the semi-precious stones that are a fad of 
to-day, but there is a decided vogue for old- 
fashioned jewellery which has good reason at its 
back. It seems that the more old-fashioned 
jewellery is, the more new-fashioned it may be- 
come.. There is no deterioration for what was 
good at the start. It remains good for all 
time, with a chance of getting better. 



100 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

Of course fashions change; but it is the change 
of a revolution. Presently back again into 
style come the corals, the jets, the long chains, 
the pendant ear-rings, and all the rest. Fashion 
is fleeting but jewellery is lasting. The heavens 
may be clouded over, but behind the clouds the 
stars still shine. So, too, tranquilly glow real 
jewels, waiting again to come into their own, J 

How to buy jeweller5% when to wear it, and 
when not to wear it, are subjects well worth 
considering. In buying jewellery it is wise to 
go to the jeweller of highest reputation. And 
this advice applies equally to the grande 
dame selecting a string of matched pearls, and 
the little shop-girl who has saved up so long and 
so self-sacrificingly for a brooch or a collar pin. 

The difference in price won't be much; 
the difference in quality may be. Genuine 
jewellery is aristocratic; cheap jewellery is 
shoddy. ) 

The jeweller's business is more than a trade. 
It is an ancient and honourable craft. In some 
lands, those who followed it were deemed 
noble. Go, then, to an old-established house, 
where proprietors and clerks have grown up 
with their wares and both know and love them. 
The purchase of a piece of jewellery from such a 
place is a liberal education in how to wear 



JEWELLERY 101 

jewellery and how to care for it; and it carries 
its own guaranty. 

Possibly one reason why the woman who loves 
her jewels comes to believe that they have a 
sympathy for her and that they look better 
on her than on any one else is because she takes 
care of them. All jewellery requires the daintiest 
of care. It must be polished and kept from the 
dust and dirt. Of course, it looks its best when 
it is at its best; and the same may be said of its 
wearer. When she is careful and particular 
of her jewellery she is careful and particular 
of herself. This is only an extension of that 
nicety which gives to her her distinctive charm. 

In considering when to wear jewellery, re- 
member and keep remembering that jewellery 
is sympathetic. It will look out of place when 
it is out of place, like a diamond pin worn with 
a linen shirt waist, or gold beads on a lately 
bereaved widow's bowed neck ! [ It calls for fit- 
ness more than any other accessory of dress; 
and the louder it calls, the more conspicuous is 
this lack of fitness, j 

Ceremony alone 6an warrant a lavish display 
of jewels. Some women go to a bridge party 
as if to a coronation. 

Some women, too, forget that jewels, if they 
have the right lustre and the right colour. 



102 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

have actual beautifying qualities. Many a 
woman with brown eyes and tawny brown hair 
may add greatly to her appearance by wearing 
topazes and old gold jewellery. Corals, which 
are again in fashion, give just the needed note 
of colour to the dark-haired woman who is 
paler than she wishes to be. Wear jewels 
that match your eyes in colour, if possible, 
and observe how much prettier your eyes look 
and how greatly their distinctive hue is 
emphasized. 

The woman who has studied her jewels in 
relation to herself comes to use them as the 
artist does the paints on his palette, each one to 
produce the present effect or to be kept for some 
other fitting occasion. Jewels used correctly 
should blend and add beauty to the different 
parts of the costume. They should light and 
soften the features of the wearer. They should 
give perfection to the picture. 



CHAPTER XIV 



THE CARE OF CLOTHES 



TREAT your clothes with disrespect, 
neglect to care for them, and what will 
happen? They w411 make you hide 
your head in shame fast enough; not only on 
their account because of their appearance, but 
on your account because of yours. 

There is no escaping the fact that clothes 
will reveal; they will betray. 

A comparison between French thrift and 
American waste is often made in the matter 
of food. A like comparison, even more in- 
structive to our women and our homes, may be 
made in the matter of clothes. 

A French woman always looks nice, because 
she is nice about her clothes. She takes the 
utmost care of them; she never rags them out. 
Like a good friend, they stand by her to the end. 
How is it with very many American women? 
After the first wearing they seem to lose in- 
terest in their clothes. Indeed, it is the getting, 

103 



104 THE IVIAGIC OF DRESS 

and not the having that counts with them. In 
the hurry to accompKsh all the many things 
they crowd into a day, they give their clothes, 
as far as their care is concerned, but a passing 
thought. They hang them up carelessly, often 
in a packed closet. They brush them occa- 
sionally, when they happen to think of it and 
they have the time, and they don't put their 
hearts as they should into the brushing. They 
are thinking of the Opening they have seen 
advertised and of the new styles, you see. 

And as a result? Well, the misused clothes 
have a little revenge of their own. They look 
shabby before their time. They persist in 
wrinkling and ripping just when you want them 
to look their best. Clearly do they illustrate 
the perversity of inanimate things, which very 
often are not as inanimate as they seem. 

It is a prime duty for every woman to 
care for her clothes. It means economy which 
will count. It means more charm for herself. 
It means that the story they inevitably tell she 
will be glad to have every one hear. 

The care of clothes is a vital matter in the 
family of moderate means. The crying need of 
more clothes and still more clothes to follow 
would be less frequent if clothes after they were 
bought were given perfect care. 



THE CARE OF CLOTHES 105 

Habit gives this care — the persistent, watch- 
ful habit which will not let up until everything 
is "just so," as the saying is. Such a habit of 
caring for clothes is well worth acquiring. 

The careful woman always has two helpers 
close at hand; a threaded needle and a brush 
broom. When these have done their perfect 
work, then there is a third helper that should 
also be on call — a safe and sure cleaning fluid. 
There are plenty such on the market — not gaso- 
line, mark you, which never should be used 
except in the open air, and generally not then. 

Those trite sayings, "A stitch in time saves 
nine" and "Never put off until to-morrow what 
you can do to-day," should be remembered 
and applied to the care of clothes. But the 
truth is that often, too often, not even the 
nine stitches are ever taken; nor is anything 
done to-day that can possibly be put off until 
to-morrow. Again the rush and scramble of 
the times! 

Get the habit of taking the needed stitch 
and wielding the necessary brush before any 
garment is put away. After a while you would 
no more neglect to do so than you would neglect 
to wash your face. 

And where it is put away and how it is put 
away are both matters of vital importance. 



106 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

To-day, of all days, there is a place for 
everything. 

This applies even to the close quarters of a 
small apartment. So many are the new and 
clever space-saving devices that it would seem 
as if a new one appeared on the market every 
day. There are hangers for coats, skirts, 
waists, and for one-piece dresses. There are 
special trunks for special garments. There are 
wardrobes so arranged that they protect and 
hold an almost incredible amount of clothes. 
There are chiffonieres that are made with a door 
and have the most surprising of compartments 
inside. They contain drawers for waists and 
underwear, and a lower, deeper drawer for 
shoes, to say nothing of hat cushions for the 
safe holding of four or more hats. 

There are boxes galore, and most attractive 
ones, too. They are frequently upholstered to 
match the draperies of the room. They are 
provided with castors so that they may be easily 
moved about. Sometimes they are tucked 
under the bed, and sometimes they are used as 
seats; but at all times they are a convenience. 

Then there are the rods for closets from which 
coat and skirt hangers are suspended. These 
are easily arranged, and they triple the capacity 
of any closet. 



^THE CARE OF CLOTHES 107 

But there is work to be done before the clothes 
are put away. Brush your hat when you take 
it off, and then put it in its own special box. 
Many of the bandboxes to-day are quite fas- 
cinating affairs. They are lined with silk or 
cretonne and are fragrant with sachet. 

Brush your skirt, see that its hooks and eyes 
are not hanging, put in all the stitches necessary, 
give it a vigorous shaking for good measure, 
and then hang it on its form. To keep the 
skirt in immaculate condition, it should be 
slipped into a big, roomy bag. If space will 
allow, a skirt bag of black silk or sateen made 
with a drawstring at the top will be most effec- 
tive in protecting the skirt from dust. 

Remember that dust we not only are, but 
that we live, move and have our being in dust. 
Therefore, brush, sisters, brush with care, 
whenever you come in from the air. 

Clothes need the rest cure, and they are 
very responsive to it. But don't send them off 
to the cure until you have given them a taste 
of active treatment. They should be brushed, 
cleaned and pressed and then covered over 
before they are marched away from the frivol- 
ities of the world. A week of seclusion will do 
wonders for tired-out clothes. 

If furs are not sent to cold storage, they 



108 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

should be well shaken before they are put 
away, and they never should be laid flat. The 
best way to keep a muff is on a rod. In fact, 
it is desirable to swing all fur garments on a rod 
rather than store them in a box. If you can't 
give your furs cold air, then give them fresh air. 

Be sure, in using boxes to hold your waists, 
scarfs, hosiery, etc., to have each box labelled 
plainly; and never put an article in the box of 
another article. That would be confusion worse 
confounded. 

The accessories of dress need special care. 
Never put gloves away in a little bunch. Don't 
roll them. They should be carefully smoothed 
out. An inexpensive glove case can be made 
out of a strip of sash ribbon, with a roll of pad- 
ding at one end, which may be sacheted or not 
as preferred. The other end is pointed, and 
a ribbon is attached to it which is used to tie 
the case together. This may be embroidered 
with one's monogram. The same rather nar- 
row ribbon is run down the centre of the 
inside of the case. It is tacked with feather- 
stitching here and there, according to how 
many pairs of gloves the case is made to 
hold. The gloves are folded and then slipped 
under the ribbons, which keep them in place. 
The case rolls up, and occupies but little room. 



THE CARE OF CLOTHES 109 

A deep, narrow box is also convenient for hold- 
ing gloves. 

In caring for belts, first smooth them out, 
and then roll and put in a box which will hold 
them compactly. 

Handkerchiefs of course must be folded and 
piled in a box or case. Though the handker- 
chief case is a time-honoured affair, especially 
as a present for a young clergyman who will 
never use it, the woman who cares for her things 
will find that handkerchiefs rumple less in a 
box, and so she won't use one either. 

And veils? It is inspiring what some women 
can do for their veils; just as it is awful what 
some women will do to them. Veils should be 
kept in a box. 

It was a canny old lady who, being anxious 
as to the character of the young woman her son 
had chosen for a wife, managed to get a peep 
at this young woman's bureau drawers. Talk 
about the skeleton in every household! The 
bureau is a favourite hiding place for the dread- 
ful thing. Either the bureau is neat and 
orderly with every compartment having its 
separate use, with every box always in its own 
place, and every loose article always where it 
should be and as it should be, or it is a hopeless 
jumble. Think of the frenzied hunt, the turn- 



110 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

ing over, the tossing about, the piHng up and the 
casting down, with the inevitable man consum- 
ing his soul with impatience in the parlour. 

Eternal vigilance is the price of a faultless 
wardrobe, whether it is a modest one or a most 
elaborate and fashionable one. There is no 
royal road to that distinction in dress which 
comes from perfection of detail. It means 
care and more care and still more care every 
time. 

Again comes the frequent lesson of indi- 
viduality in dress. It cannot be escaped. As 
the woman is — so her clothes are. 

Give to your clothes, then, the dainty 
personal habits of which you yourself are so 
proud; and you may take pride in them, as 
they will take pride in you. 

Above all, remember, that if women would 
devote themselves to the care of clothes rather 
than to the care for clothes, they would be wiser 
and happier. What is more to the point, they 
would be far more attractive. There is no one 
so fascinating as my lady immaculate. 



CHAPTER XV 

DRESS IN ITS RELATION TO AGE 

BEAUTY is said to be eternal. But it 
is different with clothes. They should 
not outlast the stage of life which 
they mark. From babyhood to old age, 
womankind is continually changing — trying 
to keep pace with the years, sometimes to 
hasten them, oftentimes to hide them. 

In general, it is a rule worth following that 
the clothes of one period are not the proper 
clothes for any other period. 

But how seldom is the rule adhered to and 
how many and how pitiful are the mistakes 
made. 

Illustrating dress in its relation to age, 
let us take first the most pitiful type of all 
and then be rid of it — the woman who is 
growing old and who is striving for youth 
with a fierce, hopeful, hopeless zeal. In her 
effort to look what she is not, she misses the 
true meaning of dress. She does not know, 

111 



112 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

and apparently does not care to know, that 
dress should be the body's complement; that 
they should always match and agree with 
each other. 

The more the woman who is growing old 
strives to hide the fact in her dress, the more 
evident it becomes. And how the struggle 
must surprise old Father Time! 

What a caricature she makes of herself — 
this woman who is growing old. She dyes 
her hair. She makes up her face. She dresses 
as her granddaughter might. 

And what happens .^^ Nature revolts, for 
she hates things artificial. So she relent- 
lessly exposes them. 

The dyed hair has its revenge. Instead 
of softening the features, it only brings out 
the lines of age more sharply, and makes the 
face glare out as ghastly as a death mask. 
Indeed, such a face is a mask and no one knows 
it better than the woman behind it. She never 
dares to let her face express an emotion, for 
she realizes that one little smile of welcome or 
cheer might make it crack; so she keeps it 
rigid. 

Then her poor, exhausted body finds the 
fashions and frills of extreme youth like a 
giant's robe, too heavy to endure. 




\/ 



"What a caricature she makes of herself — this icoman 

who is groiring old^^ 



DRESS IN ITS RELATION TO AGE 113 

Who would care to preserve this picture, 
to hand it down as a sacred heirloom? 

Old age, however, has its styles and fashions 
that rightfully belong to it — the dress which 
has grown old with the wearer. 

Nature is always kindly toward her own 
ravages, when they are accepted. She softens 
the wrinkles by the smile and gives glory to 
the crown of white hair. How lovable the 
old lady who is appropriately dressed. 

Women who are growing old need not 
wear out-of -fashion styles to be appropriately 
dressed. If it happens to be the day of the 
close-fitting sleeve and the scant skirt, it is not 
necessary, just because of their age, that they 
wear big sleeves and voluminous skirts. They 
should recognize in selecting their clothes 
the trend of the modes, but the extremes of 
fashion, of course, they should never consider. 

Subdued colours are for the women who 
are growing old, and soft laces and fabrics. 
Dress should be a harmony, not a discord. 

The woman in the sixties should not wear 
clothes like the girl in her teens. If she does, 
her dress will be a burlesque. 

Dress not only bears an important relation 
to age, but to youth as well. 

How children should dress is not only of 



114 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

consequence to the welfare of the child, but also 
the growing girl and the woman, for the over- 
dressed little girl and young girl are apt to 
become overdressed old women. 

It is hardly necessary to say that children's 
clothes should be adapted to work and play. 
The wise father who pays the bills will attend 
to that. 

And the wise mother .^^ She will see that 
her little girl's clothes are first of all com- 
fortable, which means that they must be simple 
of design, properly made and of the right 
warmth and weight to suit the changing 
seasons. And in addition they should be 
artistic. 

Beauty in dress will not come and will 
not last without an effort. 

A little girl should be taught to regard her 
clothes as she does her person, as sacred. 
Each should have scrupulous care. 

Every mother knows, or should know, how 
instructive a plaything the doll can be made. 
The child who loves her doll will take pride 
in keeping it pretty. She will soon learn to 
discriminate in its dress. 

First, dollie dear is hugged and treasured 
whether she happens to be a thing of real 
beauty or not. She may be a rag doll with 



DRESS IN ITS RELATION TO AGE 115 

certain but pronounced peculiarities of feature, 
but dress, right dress, brings a chance of 
improvement even to a rag doll. And soon 
her little mother says, "I'll make her lovelier 
than she ever has been before." That's 
the next step. 

Few little mothers of dollie-dears, no matter 
how youthful they may be, are lacking in a 
knowledge of appropriate dress for their children. 

Imagine a dollie-dear going to a real party, 
the sort of party where cambric tea and lovely 
sugar cookies are to be served, in anything 
but a nice, fresh party dress. Her little 
mother knows that she must be dressed to suit 
the importance of the occasion; and you will 
find she generally is. 

The practice of dressing her doll correctly 
will do much toward teaching the little girl 
good taste in her own dress. She will soon 
make dollie-dear a model for herself. 

The mother who gives serious thought to 
her little girl's dress-needs will think even 
more seriously over the selection of clothes 
for her young, growing daughter. There is 
no prettier sight than the young girl whose 
dress matches her years. If once it gets 
ahead of them, it is apt to stay ahead of them, 
making her old before she has been young. 



116 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

Then, too, there is a special danger for the 
young girl who wants to dress older than her 
years. This desire in itself gives her wTong 
habits of thought in regard to herself. She, 
also, wants to be older than her years. 

The young girl who seeks to look like a 
young lady cannot be natural in her manner. 
It might muss her clothes. She constantly 
associates certain qualities with her grown-up 
finery, just as flirting goes with a fan. She 
thinks as a woman before she has learned to 
think as a young girl. And what sort of a 
woman, may we not ask? One who has to mas- 
querade, apes. 

Young womanhood is a less definite stage 
than girlhood. Circumstance may prolong 
it or cut it short, dragging it into spinsterhood 
or enriching it into wifehood. 

It is wise for the young woman in any event 
to dress as young as she looks, but no younger. 

It is wise for her to improve her good points 
and lessen her bad points by dress just as she 
may do it by her manner or disposition. But 
paints, powders, pads and dyes should not 
be used, because they are useless. Generally 
speaking, they only make a bad matter 
worse. 

With youth, health, and beauty, the young 



DRESS IN ITS RELATION TO AGE 117 

woman has a wide range of dress; indeed it 
is only limited by good taste. 

The world of dress also lies at the feet of 
the young matron for her to pick and choose. 
She may be a butterfly if only she will remember 
she is a young matron. 

There is a fine dignity to wifehood which 
should not be hurt by frivolity or allurements. 
The ideal young matron is a bit stately in 
her assured style and position. She wins 
admiration rather than excites it. The most 
charming queen is the queen consort — the 
queen of the home. 

With years such queenliness increases in 
charm. The finished woman doesn't dress 
young. She doesn't dress old. She dresses 
herself at her best as she is. No need to tell 
her what is the style; she knows what is her 
style, indeed, she herself is the style. 

She has formed her own model of herself 
as she would be; and to its ideal loveliness 
she keeps approaching. 

Does the world of dress lie at the feet of 
the spinster to pick and choose? Does she 
ever have the privilege of picking and choosing 
anything .f^ 

Well, there are spinsters and spinsters: 
the sensible spinster who is attractive, and 



118 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

the foolish spinster who is deplorable. Each 
in her own way picks and chooses, but the 
one dignifies her own station by her dress, 
while the other makes it ridiculous. 

It is better to accept gracefully than to 
struggle grotesquely and have to accept in 
the end. 

So many young women now prefer the 
single life that there is no sting to being an 
old maid unless it is self-inflicted. Therefore, 
there should no longer be any such person 
as the silly spinster. She was the outgrowth 
of humiliating conditions long since past. 
There really was no place for her so she kept 
trying to step into some other place; only 
she didn't step, she missed. The composed, 
broad-minded, reliant, capable single woman 
of to-day has no use for mitts and curls. She 
has a dignified position of her own which she 
keeps dignifying. No cast-off clothing for 
her. She knows what to get and she gets it. 

Women are gradually shaking off the fallacy 
that only girlishness is charming. The fact 
is that it is charming — in girls. No woman 
is too old to be charming unless she becomes 
artificial. Indeed charm is a jewel to which 
each year should add a gem. 



^i 



k 



try 






\ 




^^^y ' '/, 




(t 



Then she becomes an insviraiion and dress has done 

its perfect icork** 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE 

DRESS may give an added touch of 
charm to the beautiful woman. 
Dress may yield an insight into 
character to the thoughtful mind. 

But to the aflflicted in appearance, the 
anxious many, dress should come as an in- 
spiration, a comforter; whispering confident 
hope of better things. 

They are a sorry lot, the afflicted in appear- 
ance; and you meet them at every turn of 
the way, each with her own pathetic tale of 
woes peculiarly unjust and cruel. 

There is the too-fat woman, who is always 
sighing, or puffing, for the figure of a sylph. 
There is the too-thin woman who has worn 
herself thinner over her hapless condition. 
JPien there is the homely girl who mutely 
apologizes for living; the fussy woman whose 
nerves are always on edge and who quickly 
gets yours into the same condition; and the 

119 



120 



THE j\L\GIC OF DRESS 



helpless, hopeless dowdy — young, middle-aged 
and old — who is too tired to care. 

Their collective case is a sad one; for woman 
should and would be beautiful. The story 
is told of the undeniably plain woman, who 
upon hearing her clergyman pray for *' those 
afflicted in mind, body or estate," murmured 
despairingly, "I shouldn't mind all the rest 
if only I were not afflicted in looks." 

Well, dress is not a cure-all but it is an 
alleviative. It can make bad better though 
it may not make it best. Within the very 
comfortable middle-land of attractiveness, there 
is no reason why the afflicted in appearance 
should not live and thrive. 

But they must not lift their hands implor- 
ingly to Fashion and then believe that their 
part is ended; for this particular goddess 
helps those who help themselves. They must 
work as well as pray. 

Style calls for intelligence; and to dress so 
that defects are hidden and good points em- 
phasized means hard study — the study of 
form, colour, draping and above all of the 
proper line. 

One must learn how to lift dress from a 
lifeless covering into a living part of oneself. 
One must learn how to select and wear clothes 



THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE 121 

so that the simplest of them will be "just 
the costume." One must know oneself — 
know all of the worst before one can get back 
some of the best. 

The transformation of dress is not instan- 
taneous. It is a picture which gradually devel- 
ops into distinction and beauty. 

Never forget that it is well for every woman, 
no matter how afflicted she is in appearance, 
to have in her own mind an ideal image of 
herself. Some day, through study and prac- 
tice, she will measure up to the full stature 
of it. 

Woman may not be her own best dress- 
maker, but she should be her own best dress 
adviser. The handiest maid a woman can 
have to help her in dressing is self-knowledge. 

As you meet them here and there along 
the way, perhaps the most troubled of these 
patients requiring skilful dress-treatment is 
the fat woman, the too-fat w^oman. You all 
know her, and you all know the humour of 
her, that one joke which she alone cannot see. 
She is so helpless — but often that is the 
very trouble. Often the too-fat w^oman hopes 
to keep all the ease and luxury, which has 
bred her too, too, solid flesh, and yet have 
it melt. Well, it won't do it. 



122 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

In some cases, she may reduce herself 
becomingly through care and self-denial; but 
not always. Sometimes obesity is natural; 
and to pervert nature is both dangerous and 
disappointing. The wisest thing to do with 
all anti-fat nostrums is to throw them out of 
the window; having been careful first to see 
that the dog or cat w^on't be able to get them. 
Every one knows how unbecoming is a dress 
that is too large. Even more unbecoming 
than this is a skin that hangs in folds from 
improper reduction. 

But in all cases intelligent dress will do 
some good, and in no case will it do any harm. 
It may give grace; it may even give charm. 
The very fat woman often has fine hair and 
features. She often has beautiful skin and 
hands and feet. Dress may so enhance these 
attractions that all the rest, yes, all the rest, 
is overlooked. 

Does not the ardent lover write sonnets to 
his lady's eyebrows without a thought of her 
pug nose underneath? Love is never so blind 
as when enraptured by seeing just a little. 

The too-fat woman must first take herself 
severelv in hand. She must ciu-b the ex- 
uberant fondness she always seems to have 
for colours and fabrics which are possible 



THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE 128 

only for a slender, willowy figure. Of course 
what she can't have, she most wants to have, 
even though the having will bring its own worst 
punishment. 

Before she can have an ideal image of her- 
self as she should be, she must first clearly 
have an image of herself as she is. If she will 
learn to array this first mental image in the 
light shades, conspicuous designs and over 
elaborate trimmings of her vagrant fancy and 
to study their awful effect, there is no danger 
of her choosing them for the second mental 



image. 



The stout woman then must avoid extremes 
in style; they are designed for a model which 
she knows very well she is not and cannot be. 
She must wear clothes that suggest long lines. 
She must shun costumes that fit as if moulded 
to the form. She must not look as if she 
were poured into her gowns; for there is so 
very much of her that, in some places and 
always in the wrong places, she is sure to look 
as if she had spilled over a bit. This is one 
of the instances where a perfect fit is fatal. 

She must try to look comfortable in her 
gowns, and as if they were fitted to her; and not 
as if she had tried to fit herself to them, and 
had had troubles of her own in so doing. 



124 THE IVIAGIC OF DRESS 

She must consider every little detail of her 
dress, for her natural tendency is to make a 
big detail of it. For instance, if her shoulders 
are narrow and her bust large, the way her 
waist is trimmed is of vital importance. If 
braid, an embroidered band or lace insertion is 
used, it should run from the middle of the 
shoulder seam straight down to the waist line. 
There should be no cut-off effect; but the 
longest line possible should be secured. 

No matter what the latest Fashion edict 
may be, the woman, with the large arm 
should not wear a skin-tight sleeve; neither 
should the arm-hole be emphasized nor trim- 
ming be arranged in horizontal lines. One 
does not look to the pin-cushion or the sau- 
sage for an artistic type in dress. 

The stout woman should never have her 
waist cut round at the neck. The square 
neck or the V shaped neck will prove much 
more becoming. And here is a little sugges- 
tion worth remembering. In cutting the 
waist out either square or in a V have the 
opening come as close to the collar line at 
the shoulder as possible. 

The very fat woman should give special 
and intelligent thought to her corset. She 
must not put her figure into a rigid, heavily 



THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE 125 

boned vise. She must wear a corset which 
not only conforms to her own individual 
figure, not the ideal figure, mind, but also 
liygienically moulds it into graceful lines and 
at least gives the effect of trimness. 

Corset-making has reached such excellence 
to-day that the right corset for every sort of 
figure can readily be obtained; while many 
corsets are really figure reducers or figure 
builders, whichever the need requires. 

The stout woman who has little money to 
spend on dress should economize in her gowns 
and their accessories rather than in her corset. 
The corset is the foundation to build on; and 
if that is wrong even a costly Paris frock, 
designed by a dress artist, will prove a failure. 

The too-fat woman should remember that 
she will be happier and incidentally her friends 
will be also, if she does not constantly dwell 
on her size. Let her do her best for herself 
with the aid of a competent dressmaker; and 
then let her straightway forget that she is 
any larger than she wishes to be. 

Close up to the head of the procession of 
the afflicted in appearance is the too-thin 
woman. Though the too-fat woman may 
sigh the louder, the too-thin woman sighs 
even more soulfully. Indeed, she looks like 



126 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

a sigh long drawn out. She too, is unhappy. 
But let her be comforted by this basic truth: 
it is easier to build out than to trim down. 
The too-thin woman is a frame; the too-fat 
woman is an obstacle. Perfect health will 
help the too-thin woman — indeed, there is no 
one too afflicted in appearance to be beyond 
the magic of health — and so, too, will a tran- 
quil mind. Often the woman who worries 
because she is thin, is thin because she worries. 

That Fashion is capricious and everchang- 
ing of mind is helpful to the thin woman, for 
she is sure to find among the many styles some 
one which will make her look her best. The 
average thin woman comes to depend much 
upon paddings. But in this, generally speak- 
ing, she makes a mistake. It is hard to 
breathe the breath of life into the artificial 
form; and even then it is anything but depend- 
able. Though the too-thin w^oman may think 
there is nothing worse than no hips, she will 
know better when her false hips slip out of place. 
It is better to be nothing than grotesque. 

The too-thin woman must avoid the straight 
up-and-down-lines. She may look with ap- 
proval at tunic skirts in all styles, and 
fichus and large collars will add to the becom- 
ingness of her waists. She may wear any 



THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE 127 

sort of sleeve but a long, tight one; and in 
fabrics and colours she has a large variety to 
choose from. Of course, she must never let 
her eye rest for a moment on a striped fabric; 
but then she knows this without being told; 
or if she doesn't there is no use in telling her. 

She may wear checks and big ones, too, 
which her fat sister longs for yet must be denied. 
She must study how to dress her neck, though 
it would be impossible to hint that it is likely 
to be scrawny. At all events, the guimpe 
with the high stock collar should be her stand- 
by — for reasons. Dutch necks and round 
necks are not for her. 

The most becoming way to dress her neck in 
fact is to wear a guimpe, if this suits the style of 
her gown, and to have this guimpe made of tulle 
or fancy net, with the high collar finished at the 
top with a band or fold of satin, either black or 
matching the shade of the frock. This little 
touch of colour at the throat is sure to prove 
becoming; and it very successfully detracts 
from the height of the collar. 

Filmy materials, which drape gracefully, 
are best for the too-thin woman. In street 
clothes she should avoid severity of line. 
For instance, she should never wear a severely 
plain, mannish, tailored suit. 



128 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

She requires essentially feminine fashions; 
softness and frills whenever they are possible 
are always for her. 

But, dear me; the too-thin woman's troubles 
are nothing compared to those of the homely 
girl — at least from the homely girFs dis- 
couraged view-point. Generally speaking, she 
is so young without being youthful; so faded, 
so forlorn, without being passe. \Miy, a 
frame to hang clothes on would really seem 
a more hopeful model, and the worst of it is 
she knows it. Plain Jane she is and plain 
Jane she must be until the end of the chapter. 
Haven't her sisters and her cousins and her 
aunts all said so, to say nothing of her little 
brother? 

But no; this need not be so, if plain Jane 
will only stop thinking that it is so. She must 
learn to take a pride in herself. To the 
pretty girl, pride is poison; but to the homely 
girl, it is a tonic. One to dress well must 
dress with spirit. 

Very often this poor plain girl is nothing 
more than what the farmers call a "late ripe." 
She is sluggish of development. She needs 
nurture. She too, should have an ideal image 
of herself; a lovely-to-look-at-image. It vnLl 
help her in impro\ang her own appearance. 



THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE U9 

The homely girl should get a bit of dash 
iu her clothes. She should avoid neutral 
and sombre colours. She should wear hats 
with decided lines, and faced with a colour 
which she is sure would be becoming, if only 
she were different. Well, let her wear it, and 
she will be different. 

If she has one good point, she should exert her- 
self to make that good point beautiful. For in- 
stance, if there are dull gold lights in her brown 
hair, she should work over her tresses until 
the gold lights shimmer and glow like sunshine. 

The homely girl should strive to be the 
personification of neatness. Once that, she 
can take heart with reason; for the immaculate 
girl is always good to look upon, from New 
York to Cathay. 

But what about the woman who doesn't 
care — the dowdy woman who doesn't even 
know she is afflicted in appearance because 
she doesn't take the trouble to look at herself.^ 
Really, she should be treated as one mentally 
unsound; she should be taken in hand bv her 
friends. She should be taught that with a 
proper and pleasant appearance one may bear 
sorrow more resignedly and trouble more 
bravely; and that one may struggle on more 
persistently and fight with a lighter heart. 



130 THE IVIAGIC OF DRESS 

The dowdy woman should be made to see 
herself exactly as she is. She should be 
taught her dress faults. Undoubtedly she 
will find that indifference is the first and the 
worst of them; and that is easily overcome. 
Let even the dowdy woman who says she 
doesn't care see herself looking really charming 
just once; and never again will she sink back 
into her old ways. 

It is the duty of each human being to try 
to make the world brighter and happier. It 
is all verv well for the woman who has lost 
heart to turn herseK into a mere bundle of 
clothes. There may be consolation in this 
loss of self respect, to her; but it is an essen- 
tially selfish proceeding. 

What is the real meaning of the word 
** becoming" as applied to dress? 

It is dress that is right, appropriate and 
suited to the scene and the wearer. 

Such a dress the world expects of every 
woman; for it has come to be the mark of the 
dignity and power of the sex. Dress is 
woman's kingdom; it is cowardly of her to 
abdicate. That was a fine example set by 
the grand dames of the ancient regime when 
they put on their richest costumes to ride on 
the tumbril to the guillotine. 



THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE 131 

WTiatever the circumstance or crisis of life, 
a woman is better off for being fitly dressed. 

But she should remember to be pleasant 
about it. The fussy woman is afflicted in 
appearance, even though she be comely of 
face and form, and appropriately attired. 
She should cultivate ease of manner and bear- 
ing. She should learn to let well enough alone. 
The best effect is the unconscious effect. One 
who is scratched by the thorns cares little 
for the beauty of a rose. 

There are other types, too, of those who 
are haplessly or wilfully afflicted in appearance; 
but much that mav be said to anv one of them 
applies to all. Care of the health, care of 
the person, self-knowledge and the appli- 
cation of it in selecting the designs, materials 
and colours for costumes, all these aid in the 
attractiveness of dress. So, too, do a cheerful 
and easy manner, and a regard for the comfort 
and pleasure of one's fellows. 

Let a woman add to her becoming dress a 
becoming spirit, and not only will those she 
meets be ignorant that she has been or could 
be afflicted in appearance, but she herself will 
be beyond the possibility of falling again into 
such a state. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE HAT AND THE COIFFURE 

THE hat and the coiffure go together, 
let it be understood; and they go a 
great way, too. In fact, they form 
the dress for the head, part of which can be 
laid aside, but the other part should never 
be laid aside. 

They are of first importance in dress, for they 
dress that part of the body to which the atten- 
tion is first directed. 

It is the face by which we are remembered. 
And the face is not a picture which never 
changes — it is always changing and is always 
affected by its environment, even as a lake is 
by the clouds that float above it or the ripples 
that cross it. 

The face is an expression first and features 
afterward. 

Now the setting for a part of the body so 
essentially individual and spiritual should be 
adapted to all its phases. It must harmonize 

132 



THE HAT AND THE COIFFUEE 133 

or it will distort. The hat and the coiffure 
form the capstone upon which depends whether 
the whole structure is artistic or awkward. 

They are attractive, too, by themselves, 
like well behaved twins. In fact, each should 
be on its best behaviour when by itself, while 
together each adds to the other's charm. Such 
quahties, however, come through thought and 
training. What would the hair be if it simply 
grew.? The very best type of such neglect 
would be a squaw with a feather stuck in her 
elfin locks. The hat is a development of this 
feather just as the coiffure is of the elfin 
locks. 

It is care, then, that does it; the painstaking, 
discriminating care which suits the material 
to the face and not the face to the material. 
When this care is exercised, the face always 
responds a hundredfold like a bird that sings 
for the gift of a seed. 

But this care must be discriminating, let 
it be repeated. General directions are of 
little value. Here each case requires its own 
good rules. 

Where perfection can be so sublime the step 
to the ridiculous is indeed a short one. 

There is danger of inappropriateness. There 
is danger of incongruity. There is danger of 



1S4 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

uniformity. But for all these dangers good 
taste waves a warning signal. 

It doesn't do, you know, to go to a formal 
five o'clock tea wearing a stiff felt hat with a 
wing at the side and your hair twisted in an 
inconsequential knot at the nape of your neck 
Nor does it do to go on a morning shopping 
jaunt in your big picture, plume- trimmed, 
Gainsborough, with your hair marcelled and a 
mass of puffs and curls. 

Convention counts whether at a picnic or 
a ball. 

It is the element of surprise that most arouses 
laughter. 

It surely is an element of surprise, too, when 
this picture hat and elaborate coiffure, though 
properly worn, are accompanied by dingy gloves 
and shoes run down at the heel. 

There must be fitness throughout or it is 
to laugh. 

Then there is the question of age — that 
perpetual question that must be answered in 
all dress talks. 

Sometimes, and it may be said oftentimes, 
it happens that on the streets or in the res- 
taurants one's attention is caught by the very 
latest hat creation which, in Yankee tongue, 
"beats all creation." One, especially if a 



THE HAT AND THE COIFFURE 135 

feminine one, notes first the oddity of the new 
shape and the chicness of the unusual trimming. 

It is dramatic. It is audacious. But then 
comes the shock. One looks beneath for the 
piquant young face which surely must add 
fascination to the hat, and alas, one sees the 
lustreless eyes, the saggy cheeks, and the 
hanging jaw of old age trying to be young. 
Really, one feels like repeating the litany. 

Then there is the model sent straight from 
the cafes chantants of Paris. This is a hat 
that should be seen at a distance and above the 
footlights and in the middle of an elaborate 
stage scene thronged with people in order to 
convey its chic idea. But it is accepted se- 
riously and without any reservation, fairly 
swallowed, if such a gulp can be imagined. 

Think of the slip of a girl weighing less 
than a hundred pounds who balances this 
enormity on her head and is proud of it. 
Think of the fat and lean women of all ages 
and conditions who look enviously upon her. 

This is not a case of the girl wearing the hat, 
but of the hat walking off with the girl. Verily 
pride goeth before the fall of common sense. 

Yet, this model if properly studied and 
modified might really prove the artistic life of 
the new designs. 



136 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

Behold, too, the apple-faced, chubby woman 
who really should wear a large sombre-hued 
hat to give the due proportion. 

What is this item from a doll's wardrobe she 
is so blithely wearing? Perhaps, by means 
of a microscope or spy glass, we may be able 
to examine it sufficiently to detect that what 
might be a wen is really a turban. 

But even these examples, bad as they are, 
are not productive of individual taste. There 
is a lamentable lack of originality or what is 
a better word, individuality, in the dressing of 
the head. A group of penguins on a desert 
island look no more alike than a gathering of 
fashionable women. You can't tell one pen- 
guin from another, and you surely can't tell 
one woman from another if you judge her by 
the hat and hair. 

There is a distressing uniformity of puffs and 
waves and curls, of slinky feathers and towering 
aigrettes to be seen in the orchestra of a theatre 
or in the pews of a fashionable church. Each 
woman, without the slightest regard for her 
individual attractions or defects, has adopted 
a set fashion the same as a soldier who enlists 
must adopt the uniform that is provided for 
him. 

Suppose each one of these women had been 







c 
-< 



00 









THE HAT AND THE COIFFURE 137 

compelled as the soldier is to follow regulations. 
How she would revolt! Really it sometimes 
seems that the only way to bring about indi- 
viduality in feminine dress would be to have 
laws passed, regulating every particular item 
of it under heavy penalties. Then you may 
be sure women would dress as they please and 
look all the better for it. 

Is there then a secret to hat-success.^ Yes. 
The hat must be artistic. Styles come and 
styles go but art remains. 

In other words, the hat must be becoming. 
It must be appropriate. It must fit the person 
and the costume. It must harmonize with 
the face. It must conform to the trend of 
style. 

These conditions being carried out, it really 
makes little difference what the shape, material 
or the size may be. The woman who wears 
such a hat wears a fetching hat. 

After all, innovations in hats are more 
apparent than real. It is easy enough to twist 
a model out of shape, but the basic idea of the 
model still remains. 

As a matter of fact, there are a few hat 
shapes that are always in style, and upon one 
of these shapes the fad of the day is founded. 
The woman of good taste wears the model upon 



138 THE IVIAGIC OF DRESS 

which the fad is founded with but a suggestion 
of the fad itself. 

Moderation is the golden rule of hat lore. 
What, then, are a few of these hat types? 

First and foremost is the Gainsborough 
with its glint of romance which time cannot 
dim. 

Then there is its direct opposite, the English 
sailor, which like its namesake is handy to 
have around under all conditions. The turban, 
too, has been a model for ages, and its essential 
idea has been modified into a hundred different 
serviceable shapes. Wliat whole races have 
accepted as almost a sacred style must have 
some good to it. 

Analyze the latest eccentricity from Paris 
and you are very apt to find at least a trace 
of one of these shapes in it. 

Woman's chiefest glory is said to be her hair. 
But it is a glory which must be acquired, not 
one that is conferred. Hair even at its prettiest 
is raw material. It requires care and taste and 
art in order to make it the proper setting for 
the face underneath. 

Does it therefore require the expert treat- 
ment of an artist? Practically no, because 
there are no artists. The hair-dresser follows 
a trade, and in his stock there is no such com- 



THE HAT AND THE COIFFURE 139 

modity as originality. There are skilful maids 
to be sure; for the wealthy, but the woman of 
moderate means must be artist for her own hair. 

If she but uses thought no maid can compare 
with her any more than a nurse can compare 
with a devoted mother. 

When this is done, instead of the hair being 
something to be fixed, or, let it be whispered, 
put on, it truly becomes a vital part of the 
person, sharing in and harmonizing w^ith the 
individuality through which each one is known. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

SHOPPING IN PARIS 

A COURSE in training would not come 
amiss if you would shop as you should 
^ in Paris. There are certain essentials 
that must be observed. Concentration is 
one of them, and having an opinion of your 
own and sticking to it, too, is another. A 
knowledge of the French language, as it is 
spoken in Paris and not taught in the average 
school is a third. While more important than 
all is to have a regulation figure, meaning 
thereby a thirty-six-inch bust and a twenty- 
four-inch waist. Paris never caters to stout 
women. 

Then courage and strength to resist the most 
subtle and persistent of flattery is needed and, 
even if you are able to do this, a purse full to 
the overflowing. 

In a word, there is no place in the world 
where the American woman needs so much 
to keep her own wits and those of her hus- 

140 



SHOPPING IN PARIS 141 

band's female relatives about her as while 
shopping in Paris. 

Of course, there is a reason why one must be 
so fortified to shop successfully in Paris. And 
there is; indeed its name is 'egion. 

To the average American woman who visits 
Paris for the first time there is a glamour, 
and a glamour of long standing, surrounding 
the shops and the big dressmaking establish- 
ments. Paris is the synonym of style. It is 
the Rome of the couturier. It is the Holy 
of Holies of Fashion. 

The ingenuous American woman feels as 
if she should enter the shops and ascend 
the broad steps of the old palaces, now 
occupied by world-famed dressmakers, on her 
knees. Well, after she is back from her pil- 
grimage, she may still be on her knees — in 
repentance. 

Not to buy what is offered in Paris seems 
almost an impossibility. The Frenchman is 
a born trader. He will do about anything, 
or almost anybody, to make a sale. Often- 
times his nerve and wily tongue hypnotize 
the will of the buyer. Besides, goods are not 
simply offered in Paris; they are pressed, as I 
suppose properly prepared goods always should 
be in a way. 



142 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

There are many sides to the Fashion world 
of Paris, and many phases to each side. 

To the fair Americaine who comes well sup- 
plied with American gold, the big doors of the 
famous dressmaking establishments swing wide 
open. 

For the equally fair Americaine, who comes 
ill supplied with American gold, there are the 
department stores and the little shops in the 
back streets which when ferreted out hold so 
much that is charming, chic and delightfully 
inexpensive. It may often prove that patience 
and judgment will more than make up for this 
lack of gold. 

But, of course, it is the big dressmaking 
establishments of Paris to which most of the 
glamour clings. Here, though the doors are 
wide open to wealth, there is much of formality 
and much of mystery. The old palaces of the 
nobility are the centres of Fashion. Here the 
couturiers of the present day create their 
new styles and offer them to their often newer 
customers. 

The ancient nobility is a thing of the past, 
the shadow of a name; but these couturiers 
form a caste as arrogant and exclusive. They 
are girted about with form and precedent. It 
is difficult to approach them; and then, when 



SHOPPING IN PARIS 14S 

an audience is granted, one is expected to hear 
and to obey — also, parenthetically, to pay. 

"The Style — it is I" says the fashion master 
with all the infallibility of Louis XIV. And 
he is so cocksure of it that you have to believe 
it yourself. 

Nor is this a wonder. France has been 
repeatedly swept by revolution. Monarchy, 
democracy, imperialism and republicanism have 
all succeeded to power and fallen from it; 
but the rule of the dressmaker has remained 
unbroken. It levies a tax on every nation 
and holds its subjects in every clime. 

Who, then are these Princes of the Power 
of Vanity; these High Priests of Beauty and 
Charm? Frenchmen and Frenchwomen, the 
most of them; Austrians, Italians, Russians, 
some of them; English, one of them; but not 
one of them is American, nor does one of 
them know or care for American qualities or 
limitations or for aught that is American except 
American extravagance and American gold. 

The succession for the most part has been 
hereditary and progressive; from father to son; 
from artisan to artist; with trade secrets cun- 
ningly devised and kept like a family treasure. 
Intelligence and skill are at the command of 
the rulers of these famous establishments, and 



144 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

also what is far more important, that undefin- 
able something in cut, colour, combination and 
finish which all women, and most men, the 
world over recognize as French. 

On the other hand, these lords of the needle 
and scissors have long since forgotten, if indeed 
they have ever known, that it takes nine tailors 
to make one man. They take themselves 
seriously; issuing edicts as if from the throne. 
They have all the defects of long continued 
power. They won't modify; they won't change. 
Take it or leave it, is their ultimatum. 

Yet, in many respects, perfection is theirs; 
the perfection that comes from centuries of 
thought, experience and practice; the perfec- 
tion that can be exercised by experts inbred 
for generations, who live, move, and have their 
being like their fathers and mothers before 
them in doing a few things and in doing them 
well. 

The work-people in these great establish- 
ments are specialized. They do and keep 
doing the same work, year in and year out. 
One little seamstress may make collars or work 
on sleeves all day and every day. Is it strange 
that they each reach perfection in their special 
work? 

But now for the rulers, the fashion kings 



SHOPPING IN PARIS 145 

themselves. Let us particularize. Each year 
Paris changes, so the influence of one leader is 
felt more than that of the others. In this way, 
in time they all have a chance to let their own 
personalities sway the mode of the day. 

Recently, Paul Poiret has been the talk, 
the very ruling spirit, of Paris fashions. But 
Poiret is young and his enthusiasm has carried 
him a bit too far. He is a lover of colour and 
is original in its use. He lives in much elegance; 
and his garden with its flower beds arranged 
in striking combinations and contrasts has come 
to be as much talked about as his gowns in 
which the same taste is displayed. His estab- 
lishment is like a private mansion. The 
entrance is most imposing, and liveried servants 
are here, there and everywhere. 

It is the artistic side of dress rather than 
the practical side that Poiret has always con- 
sidered. Straight effects, simplicity, the high 
waist line and unusual and marvellous colour- 
blen dings are always seen in his costumes. He 
is responsible for the harem skirt. This 
trouser skirt was, indeed, his idea of the prac- 
tical. It was his step too far, though no one 
who wore it could take one. It proved a 
failure, a striking illustration that even genius 
should keep within its special lines. Poiret 



146 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

knows nothing about and cares even less for 
the practical. It is the artistic that he loves 
and is. 

Years ago, when a trip to Paris was being 
considered, it was always Worth who occupied 
most the thoughts. The Worth dressmaking 
establishment is one of the oldest and most 
historic in Paris. It was the elder Worth who 
dictated the crinoline and imposed the chignon 
and treated his customers as a tyrant might 
his slaves. Since his autocratic reign, the 
establishment has had seasons when its in- 
fluence was very slight; but it always swings 
back into vogue again. The business now 
belongs to the Worth family and is conducted 
by the two Worth brothers, Jean Charles and 
Gaston Worth. There are more ladies of the 
nobility in Worth's clientele than in that of 
any other dressmaking firm in Paris, The 
specialty of the house is court and evening 
gowns. 

The kings of fashion in Paris to-day have 
no monopoly of the sceptre. There are queens 
of fashion, too, among the creators and dic- 
tators of the modes. There is the house of 
Callot, known as the Callot Soeurs. Two 
sisters, elderly women, run this establishment 
and exert a marked influence on Paris styles 



SHOPPING IN PARIS 147 

notwithstanding the fact that every C allot 
fashion is copyrighted. 

Callot ScEurs have many of the most famous 
actresses among their customers, and many 
of the richest Americans. They are distinctly 
French, and their establishment shows it in 
every detail. Each little fitting room looks 
like a society belle's boudoir. The walls are 
covered with silk brocade, or plaited lace net, 
and the colours of the furnishings are of the 
daintiest and softest. The mannequins at 
Callot Soeurs are much talked of for their 
beauty. 

The Paquin dressmaking establishment is 
one of the landmarks of the Rue de la Paix. 
The House of Paquin from the exterior looks 
like a hanging garden of beautiful flowers. 
The balconies and window ledges are always 
abloom. The entrance is right off the street, 
and on this ground floor is a typical French 
shop, most interesting, where many of the 
dainty little things of dress are to be found. 

Since the death of her husband, Madame 
Paquin is the ruling spirit of this establishment. 
She is most ably assisted by Mile. Claire, her 
premiere saleswoman, and M. Joire, her brother. 
The House exerts one of the most dominant 
style influences in Paris. 



148 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

Very near Paquin's, just around the corner 
on the Place Vendome, Madame Cheruit has 
her establishment. She is an extremely charm- 
ing woman, with a personality which has much 
to do with her business success. No woman 
can resist a Cheruit gown if it is first displayed, 
worn by INIadame herself. 

Thus, you will see, there is no longer one 
dress ruler in Paris to-day. The kingdom of 
Fashion is divided. Where once there was one 
king, and that king the elder Worth first and 
then Monsieur Paquin, there are now many 
princes and princesses regnant. They do not 
dare so far; but thev dare overmuch. 

A most important feature, and one peculiarly 
French, of shopping at these big dressmaking 
establishments is the manner of displaying 
the costumes. When the throne room is 
reached where the model gowns are to be shown, 
in glide the mannequins. These are the young 
girls w^ith pretty faces and perfect figures who 
have been selected as the living forms upon 
which the gowns are displayed. They are a 
distinct Parisian class, trained w^ith severity 
for their work. They are graceful of movement 
and cunning in all the turns and devices by 
which the best is shown at its best. Nothing 
can exceed the fit, the swing, the chicness of 



SHOPPING IN PARIS 149 

the gowns as the mannequins wear them; for 
the wearing is as fine an art as the making. 
So indeed the American woman may find to 
her cost when the poor httle jackdaw tries 
to strut in the plumage which was meant for 
one of these rare gay birds rather than for her. 

She who would buy a French gown should 
first be sure that she knows how to wear one. 

The American woman, in making her selec- 
tion, should have the prudence to enforce her 
individual taste. She has been doing this 
sometimes during the last few years, and it has 
influenced Paris styles in no small degree. 

The French couturier is cunning first and 
creative and artistic afterward. For all his 
arrogance and conceit, he will do anything 
rather than lose good American money when 
it is in sight. To use slang, he bluffs; but can 
be quickly called by a display of nerve. 

If his customers from the States now have 
ideas of their own and insist on asserting them, 
he will put aside some of his self-sufficiency, 
and not only listen but yield, a compliance 
unheard of until recently. 

In Paris, even more than at home, women 
must fight the good fight of taste against trade. 
The old tyranny is there, still entrenched, as 
has been shown, behind form and precedent; 



150 THE ^L\GIC OF DRESS 

but even the strongest castle is \nilnerable 
when the warder has an itching palm. 

There is a broad dividing line between the 
dressmaking establishments of Paris and the 
French shops. 

The American woman during her first visit 
to Paris has to keep remembering and saying 
over and over to herself: "These are the much 
talked-of French shops — the Louvre, the Bon 
Marche, the Printemps and the Gallerie La- 
fayette," or she will gaspingly fear that she 
hasn't arrived after all. In no way do they 
compare with our big, beautiful, luxurious 
shops. Such a thing as artistic window dress- 
ing, for instance, is unkno^m in Paris. Why 
should the dealers spend their good money to 
attract those who are already attracted? 

Liside the stores, there is a lack of system 
in arrangement. The effect is second-hand, 
however first-hand the wares offered may be. 
Things seem to be in a jumble. But there is a 
fascination, nevertheless, to this confusion 
which comes from the combinations of colours 
on every side. There is something inspired 
about the French touch, so seemingly careless. 
It can do an\i:hing with colours except make 
them not match. 

One must remember, however, that this 



SHOPPING IN PARIS 151 

successful audacity thrives under the skies of 
Paris and nowhere else. Many a fetching 
combination there becomes a frightful combi- 
nation here. May not the glamour of authority 
have something to do with it? When a queen 
limps, all her maids of honour limp also. 

The comforts and luxuries in which the 
American shops abound are lacking in the 
Paris shops. They would seem insane extrava- 
gances to the French dealer. It is the cus- 
tomer's high office not his, you must under- 
stand, to spend. He takes in, always the 
shekels and sometimes the spender. 

But not always are the customers taken in, 
unless, as many of them do, they insist and 
persist in taking themselves in. The shops 
do show many novel, good and inexpensive 
things well worth purchasing by the American 
customer. Hats are invariably fetching in 
Paris, even if some of them are a bit extreme; 
and all millinery is cheap there compared 
with here. Underwear is apt to be a real 
bargain, while one can pick up silk petticoats 
and adjustable silk and chiffon ruffles at the 
most convenient and acceptable prices. All 
the little accessories of dress also are worth 
purchasing if one needs them. 

Novelties may be found in the French shops. 



152 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

too, months before they are seen in New York; 
but the American woman must take pains that 
she is getting French novelties. Some of them 
arrive by way of Germany or Connecticut, and 
are daringly offered as quite the chicest 
thing out. 

*'But gloves?" the American woman may 
ask who is now beginning to gasp without going 
to Paris. Well, yes; there are gloves both 
cheap and dear at almost any price. The 
best ones are superlatively good; the worst 
ones are horrid. In the general shops they 
are arranged according to size, and you may 
suit yourself if you can. The wisest plan is 
to shun the glove grab-bag of the general 
-shops and go to some standard glove house. 
There you will find gloves fully as expensive 
as here, but you will get your money's worth 
and more in quality, make, and fit. 

Some improvements are being made to-day 
in the French department stores, just as the 
couturiers are beginning to pay some heed 
to individual taste; but in either case progress 
is slow. Among people who for centuries 
have been self satisfied and set in their ways, 
with good reason, such reforms will only come 
when they are profitable. 



CHAPTER XIX 

AMERICAN SHOPS AND AMERICAN FASHIONS 

IT IS not SO long ago that we had neither 
American shops, nor American fashions 
in America. 

The progress has been from the wigwam 
to the department store; and from imitation 
toward independence. 

The early colonists sent over their casks 
of tobacco to their English agents who sent 
back in turn bales of all sorts of goods. 

After the Revolution the influence of the 
French, who had come to America's aid, pre- 
vailed. And to the close of the Civil War, 
foreign goods and French styles were largely 
the rule. This rule was tyrannical. Nothing 
that was made in this country was of any 
account except as a covering; while the dictum 
of the French couturiers was as infallible 
as the bull of a pope. Of course very few 
women, comparatively, went to Paris for their 
gowns, but gowns that were gowns either came 

153 



154 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

from Paris or had the Parisian stamp in some 
way upon them. 

In the expanding years after the Civil War, 
with manufacture encouraged and wealth plen- 
tiful, it was inevitable that the small store 
should develop into the big store. But the 
store, however, was still mainly a place for the 
sale of foreign goods and did not pretend to set 
up styles of its own. The development was 
nmterial, but so great that the big store of 
one year was the small store of the next, one 
might almost say. 

One idea purely American, however, prevailed 
from first to last and that was to please the 
customer. The reason why distinctly Ameri- 
can styles and fashions were not developed 
at the same rate as convenience, luxury and 
a marvellous display of the wares of the world 
was that the customer had no use for them. 
It was Parisian or nothing with the American 
women up to twenty years ago. 

There is no parallel to this material develop- 
ment of the American shop except perhaps 
that of the three-story building of a half 
century ago into the towering skyscraper of 
to-day. 

The shop of the sixties was a specialized 
shop. The housewife with many errands had 



AMERICAN SHOPS AND FASHIONS 155 

to go to many shops. The general store was 
so uncommon that its name gave it a certain 
distinction. It was, in fact, a citified country 
store. In the main, each shopkeeper followed 
a particular line of trade which he understood 
very well, but being engaged only in a small 
way, he carried only a limited stock. There were 
crockery stores and linen stores and wooden- 
ware stores and variety stores, but all of them 
put together would not make a small-sized 
department store of to-day. These were days 
of small dealings rather than cheap dealings. 

The woman of to-day can exhaust not only 
her errands but her self before she begins to 
exhaust the least of the stores. The develop- 
ment indeed has been carried to such an extent 
that a monstrosity has been evolved in some 
instances. 

Under one gigantic roof covering a block 
may be found a conglomeration of the com- 
modities of the world — a fair of every nation 
and of every time resplendent in a brilliancy 
peculiarly its own. 

This conglomeration is confusing to even 
the experienced shopper of to-day, in fact, it 
often intoxicates her, and shopping under such 
circumstances becomes the most confirmed of 
habits. This woman will give up her friends, 



156 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

her home and her church, but never, oh, never, 
her department store. 

What, then, would be the mental effect of 
it upon one of the specialized shoppers of a half 
century ago could she be transported into the 
midst of a vast and crowded scene wherein 
if she had the money and strength she could 
buy not only everything that she had ever 
thought of, but everything that everybody 
else who had ever existed had ever thought of, 
and a bewildering profusion of unthought of 
things besides. Talk about dreams or night- 
mares — it would exceed delirium itself. 

Let us particularize a little. You pass from 
cheese and eggs and milk and little chickens, 
running around, to sable coats and Gains- 
borough hats with ostrich plumes. You step 
from rowboats and tents and fishing rods and 
shotguns to false hair and dyes and rouge and 
powders and perfumes. 

You turn from pots and kettles and pans to 
lace-trimmed negligees and embroidered pet- 
ticoats and nightgowns. 

You eat ice-cream amid tropical palms. You 
turn over the leaves of the latest novel, and 
have your picture taken while you read. 

The skilled physician or nurse takes your pulse. 
The dentist gives the latest touch of perfec- 



AMERICAN SHOPS AND FASHIONS 157 

tion to your teeth. The chiropodist reheves 
the fatigue of your feet, and what the beauty 
specialist doesn't do for you isn't worth men- 
tioning, at least, so she says. 

There is the engagement ring, too, for the 
loving couple, with the clergyman close in 
attendance, and wedding presents — well, all 
weddings since that at Cana in Galilee could 
be amply supplied without need of reducing 
the inventory. 

There is the bank, too, for the young couple's 
thrift, and the postoffice to take messages of 
how happy they are; while a little beyond, as 
is right for the dim future, there are cradles 
and nursing bottles and complete layettes. 

Since there is no question then about the 
quantity of goods, how about the quality.'^ 

Here American pride must look out for a fall. 
Intelligent foreigners say that American things 
are made to sell; that once they go off they don't 
go much farther. There is a certain truth in 
this criticism. Convenience counts, adapta- 
bility counts, appearance counts most of all, 
but durability is left behind the door. 

But this monster store is only the exaggera- 
tion of a tendency. The distinctive American 
store is big, but not too big. It is compre- 
hensive, but it is not unwieldy. It contains 



158 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

very many things, but they are selected with 
discrimination and arranged with taste. 

The care that is taken for the customer's 
convenience in America is beyond all praise. 
It is with pride that we say, too, it is purely 
American. Nowhere in Great Britain, much 
less on the Continent, can anything be found 
like it. The American customer in America 
is coddled. She sees what she w^ants before 
she asks for it. There is invitation to ease 
on every side. 

The foreign shopkeeper is not afraid that 
his customers may get tired except of course 
tired of buying. After that he, too, is tired 
of seeing them around, and the sooner they lug 
off their purchases the better. 

The American shopkeeper, on the contrary, 
tries to give with a bargain all the privileges 
of a rest cure and a club. 

The danger is indeed that this attractive 
luxury will be overdone and that shopping 
will become too fascinating to the American 
woman. 

In time, as these shops kept increasing in 
stock, ideas purely American of how the goods 
should be fashioned and worn sprang up and 
spread. Though at first few and far between, 
these ideas kept increasing until now the Ameri- 



AMERICAN SHOPS AND FASHIONS 159 

can shopkeeper is coming to have a mind of his 
own, nor does he really have to go to Paris 
to know what it is. 

Already there is such a style as the American 
style, though to-day no more than a modified 
French style. In time, however, the French 
couturier will have to come to America to 
know what the style is and then go back home 
to try his best to improve it. 

The fault of imitation no longer lies with 
the American shopkeeper. He has both a 
will and a way of his own. It is the American 
woman herself who still puts a limit on them 
both. Years ago, as has been said, it was 
Paris first and America nowhere with her. 
Now America is somewhere, but Paris is still 
first. 



CHAPTER XX 



THE IDEAL IN DRESS 



DRESS sliould be more than a covering 
or an ornament. It should be an 
index to character. It should be a 
picture painted by the wearer with her own 
hands for public exhibition, showing herself 
as she would wish to be. This picture at first 
is an ideal picture, but every woman through 
thought and the development of her own taste 
may come to make it real. 

Of course, this implies self-knowledge. 

Foreigners are impressed by the peculiar 
attractiveness of American women. They say 
next to their own women it is the American 
woman that charms the most. 

Now why is this so? 

It is because of the infinite variety of the 
American woman which pleases the eye and 
holds the imagination. When any large 
number of women are under observation, 
attractiveness must imply constant change, for 

160 



THE IDEAL IN DRESS 161 

human nature soon wearies of what is monot- 
onous. If the first, last, and every other woman 
that the foreigner saw all looked and dressed 
alike, the first might well be the last for any 
interest he would feel in them. 

On the contrary, what is his common ex- 
perience? He meets first the tall and stately 
wife of his club friend, who takes pleasure in 
introducing him into society. Her poise and 
elegance are what strike him the most forcibly, 
and he immediately concludes that the Ameri- 
can woman is to be worshipped from afar rather 
than near by. 

Yet, straightway at dinner, he finds himself 
the escort of a young pretty girl who hasn't any 
poise at all and who is very well satisfied not 
to have any. She is so confidential and con- 
fiding, and tells him so much on every possible 
subject, that before the evening is over he 
feels himself to be her brother, though whether 
an elder or a younger one he is not at all sure. 

But soon he meets the blue-stocking girl, 
who looks at him critically through her 
lorgnette and who keeps saying things he 
fears are sarcastic. 

Then, to his relief, he is introduced to a 
demure mouse-like girl, whose infrequent gaze 
is soulful and who says but little, but who says 



162 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

it so intensely. Her effect is restful and 
restorative. He is quite himself again, when 
the flirtatious girl, as she is always able to do, 
has some one or another of her subjects bring 
him to her side. He is really limp when she 
gets through with him, and it is only through 
the breezy out-of-door talk of the athletic 
girl, who strides by his side like another Diana, 
that he feels he amounts to something after 
all. 

All this is exhausting and bew^ildering, yet 
he remembers distinctively each one of these 
American types. 

And why is this so? Because each one by 
her dress and her manner emphasized her 
own identity. 

It is well here to note that dress and manners 
go together. They are inseparable compan- 
ions. Now if this companionship is unnatural, 
the effect produced is distressing. 

Take the woman in a rich princesse robe of 
velvet w^ith a long train and low cut decolle- 
tage, and let her romp and giggle! Take the 
girl in a fluffy chiffon frock decked with ruffles 
and roses, and let her hold herself stiff and 
repellent! In either case, don't we all want 
to get away? 

The point, though, to be driven home is 



THE IDEAL IN DRESS 163 

that individuality in dress gives distinctiveness 
in dress. Does it do more? It might give 
grotesqueness in dress if the woman does not 
consider her own charms and defects. It may 
make her attractive or fascinating if she does 
consider them and strives to adapt her dress 
to them. 

More and more the American woman in 
seeking for beauty and style in dress should 
learn to give two impressions: one of the 
present style and the other of her own individ- 
uality. When she combines these two features 
with that judgment which comes from thought 
and study, then there is a union of the best 
that is fashionable with the best that is personal. 

And thus comes about the distinction of 
American dress. 

But, some may say, such independence 
in dress would lead to confusion, a jumbling 
together of inharm.onious styles. This, how- 
ever, will not be so if women have minds of 
their own and use them. There are certain 
principles in beauty just as there are in morals 
or religion. The more women think and study, 
the more they will come to have these princi- 
ples in common. 

The lines of the beautiful are well defined. 
For centuries this ideal of beauty has been 



164 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

buried under the rubbish of false styles and 
freak fashions. ^Yhen this rubbish is removed, 
then the beautiful is revealed, just as when the 
debris of ages is dug from a perfect statue. 

How, then, is each woman to have a beauty 
in dress of her own that agrees with the ideal 
of beauty.'^ 

She must seek the proper line, the becoming 
line, in dress. This is a conforming of the dress 
to the figure, as it should be. 

She must study colour and learn to choose 
only such shades as will harmonize with her. 

She nmst dress to emphasize the good and 
to hide the bad. 

She must adapt her dress to her environment 
and circumstances, so that she will never be 
taken for what she is not. There is no bird so 
distressful as the bird in borrowed plumage. 

In her painting of her own dress portrait 
woman must be an impressionist. 

It is the effect always and not the material 
that counts. Sometimes the slightest touch 
gives character and charm. Why is it that 
marionettes all look alike .'^ It is because they 
haven't any little ways of their own. 

The human eye is a very imperfect micro- 
scope, but the soul looks out through it and 
sees best what it likes the most. It is hard to 



THE IDEAL IN DRESS 165 

define style, but the eye knows it at once, 
sometimes finding it in the twist of a ribbon or 
the fall of a lace ruffle. 

Then there is the frame of this picture, which, 
of course, is the scene in which the woman is 
placed. She must in her dress become a living 
part of this scene. It is only in the light operas 
that a milkmaid in silks and laces is endurable. 
When the portrait and frame match, then the 
frock, the environment, and the woman come 
to belong to one another, which, as all dress 
experts know, is most desirable. 

Such a condition is especially important 
to the woman whose scant purse causes her to 
heed all the little economies in dress. She may 
far better be cheaply dressed and still be her- 
self than richly dressed and be like some one 
else, for it is herself and not this unknown 
some one else whom her friends love to see. 
Besides, who ever does pick a flower to pieces 
before exclaiming, "How beautiful!" 

If price means beauty, then the most beauti- . / 
ful dress should be made of bank-notes. 

The poetry of life of which becoming dress 
is so great a part is beyond price. All may en- 
joy it who will live it. It is a woman's peculiar 
mission to give more and more poetry to life 
and she can do this largely through her dress. 



166 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 

Of course, it is not given to all to originate, 
but it is possible for all to select and adapt. 
Let each woman keep her own individuality, 
and at the same time make the very best of it 
by her dress. 

Let her represent her own life and circum- 
stances by her dress, but at their highest point 
and not their lowest point. 

Let her gladly avail herself of all the thought 
and taste that have been and are devoted to 
fashions, but let her wisely take what is fitting, 
and leave what is inappropriate. 

Let her mind dignify her dress and her dress 
dignify her manners. 

Then she becomes an inspiration, and dress 
has done its perfect work. 



i 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



OCT 21 >^^' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 061 383 6 • 



